MOLPASTES. 39 1 



This bird is a black-headed (.-restless form of the last bird ; the 

 general colour above is also decidedly paler. 



Colours of soft parts. Iris brown ; bill and legs black. 



Measurements. Just about the same size as the White-cheeked 

 Bulbul, the wing running from 86 to 93 mm. ; the bill, however, is 

 much smaller than in either the preceding or the following bird, 

 measuring only about 12 to 13 mm. In shape it is rather stout 

 and blunt instead of slender as in leucoyeuys or very stout and 

 heavy as in humii. 



Distribution. Sind ; Cutch ; Gu/.erat; Rajputana; Punjab; 

 the IV. W. Provinces South to Etawa and Central India as far 

 E'ist as Jhansi, Saugor and Hoshangabad. 



Nidification. This differs in no way from that of the White- 

 cheeked Bulbul but the eggs avernge about 2L-0 x 15-9 mm. 



Habits. This bird is merely a plains form of M. I, leucoyenys, 

 which is a hill Bulbul. It is also more exclusively a bird of 

 civilization, breeding round about villages, gardens and orchards 

 and frequenting lightly-wooded and cultivated country rather 

 than those parts where the woods are at all extensive. 



(407) Molpastes leucogenys humii. 



HUME'S WHITE-EARED BULBUL. 

 Molpastes humiiOates, Fauna B. L, Birds, i, p. 274 (Jalalpur, Jhelum). 



Vernacular names. Not distinguished from the last. 



Description. Differs from the White-eared Bulbul in having a 

 short, full crest and in having both forehead and crest practically 

 black, with only very faint pale edgings. There is no white 

 eyebrow ; the upper plumage is a grey-brown, with no trace of 

 the olive tinge so often present in M. I. leucogenys. 



Colours of soft parts as in leucogenys but the bill is always 

 deep black. 



Measurements as in the other races but the culraen measures 

 about 15 mm. and is blunt and very stout and heavy. The wing 

 varies from 82 to 93 mm. 



Distribution. Gates named this bird from a specimen in the 

 British Museum series which he said differed from all the rest, 

 but a more careful examination shows that in this series there are 

 about twenty other specimens in every respect identical with the 

 type. These birds are all from a small area in the country round 

 Jhelum, Attock, Bannu and Kohat, on the extreme N.W. Frontier. 



Nidification. Similar to that of the other subspecies. 



Habits. This appears to be a bird of the lower hills of the 

 N.W. Frontier intermediate between the range of M.I. leucor/enys 

 on the higher hills and M. 1. lnucotis in the better-wooded plains. 

 It is a resident bird, of course, frequenting and breeding in 

 the gardens and in the scanty vegetation and hedges round about 

 cultivated areas. 



