1922.] tJip B'n^ds of Siiul. 545 



taken on 25 March, and have found nests ready for eggs on 

 23 March and 16 April, and observed young on the ^ving by 

 17 April. Mr. Bell, too, records several nosts with fresh eggs 

 in the last days of March, so that one may safely say that 

 this is the normal time for first layings. It must breed 

 several times in the course of the year ; I have seen it feeding 

 young on 24 June, and found a nest with two feathering- 

 young on 14 September, but I think that this late nesting 

 only occurs in those years when rain has fallen, and when 

 there is good cover in the way of fresh-leafed bushes and 

 trees and hence a good food-supply in the shape of fruits 

 and insects : this hitter nest w'as in a flowering " kandi " 

 bush in desert scrub, a bush which a few weeks [)reviousIy 

 was a stunted nibbled-down relic ! 



An interesting instance of hybridization with a Red- 

 vonted Bulbul is given under that speci(»s. 



Five males : wing 81-5-84-5, tail 79-84, bill from base 

 16"5-17 mm. Females are smaller. 



Pycnonotus haemorrhous pallidus (Baker). "■ Thar Bulbul." 



The Red-vented Bulbul is resident in the easternmost pai't 

 of the province ; Blanford found it not uncommon in the 

 Thar and Parkar district east of Umarkot, and Butler and 

 Doig have recorded it as being common in the E. Narra at 

 Sindree (the canal engineer's bungalow), where it breeds in 

 rose bushes, etc., in July and August ; I have seen it in the 

 same district at Chhor. The East Narra T^anal seems to be 

 the limit of its distribution westwards. 



The only other place I have seen it is at Karachi ; here 

 a pair or two frequent the Lyarree Gardens^ always in the 

 same spot, and Mr. Ludlow tells me he has seen a pair or 

 two also in the Zoological Gardens ; all these Karachi birds 

 I believe to be escapes or progeny of escapes. I frequently 

 saw a Red-vented Bulbul about with a White-eared species 

 during the cold weather of 1918, and in June 1919 they 

 built a nest in the fork of a guava tree and hatched out 

 two young, which I saw both the parents feed in turn. I 

 took one of these hybrids and tried unsuccessfully to rear it. 



SER. XI. — VOL. IV. 2 N 



