PYCNONOTUS. 411 



Nidification. The Yellow-vented Bulbul apparently breeds 

 twice in the year, as a good series of nests and eggs were obtained 

 by Mr. W. A. T. Kellow round about Perak and Taiping in 

 February and early March and again in May. The nests are 

 exactly like those of Otocompsa and are placed in bushes and small 

 trees in scrub-jungle and thin forest. The eggs also are indis- 

 tinguishable from those of that genus and are normally only two 

 or thi*ee in number. They average (20 eggs) 22*4 x 15*9 mm. and 

 the extremes are 23'6 X 15-1 mm. ; 21'0 X 16'8 mm. The longest 

 egg is also the most narrow and the shortest is also the broadest. 



Habits. Davison describes this bird in Mergui, where it is very 

 abundant, as being just like Otocompsa in habits, "food and the 

 country it frequents. He says: "I have repeatedly seen it on 

 the ground hopping about. It feeds largely on insects, such as 

 grasshoppers etc., but also on berries and fruit, and I have seen 

 it clinging to mangoes and pecking away at the fruit. Its note is 

 extremely like that of Otocompsa emeria, ' kick, kick, pettigrew,' 

 repeated several times. It is usually found singly or in pairs, 

 though often half-a-dozen or more may be seen seated about the 

 bushes near each other, but I do not think they act in concert or 

 ever go in flocks ; they are not shy." 



(426) Pycnonotus aurigaster xanthorrhous. 

 ANDERSON'S YELLOW-VENTED BULBUL. 



Pycnonotm xanthorrhous Anderson, P. A. S. B., 1869, p. 265 (Kak- 

 hyen Hills) ; Blanf. & Gates, i, p. 286, footnote. 



Vernacular names. Kator-tor-prony (Kachin). 



Description. Forehead, crown, lores, a ring round the eye and 

 a narrow cheek-stripe extending to the end of the ear-coverts, 

 black; a small spot, of deep red at the base of the lower mandible 

 near the gape; ear-coverts glossy hair-brown, the feathers with 

 obsolete pale margins; wings and tail darker brown, the former 

 margined with the colour of the back, the latter narrowly tipped 

 with white ; sides of the neck brown, meeting in a crescentic band 

 across the breast ; abdomen and vent whitish ; sides of body and 

 thighs brown ; under tail-coverts deep golden yellow ; under side 

 of shafts of tail-feathers white. 



Colours of soft parts. Iris brown or brownish red; bill, legs and 

 feet black. 



Measurements. Total length about 200 mm. ; wing about 85 

 to 93 mm. ; tail about 95 mm.; tarsus about 23 mm.; culmen 

 about 15 mm. 



Distribution. The hills of Eastern Burma from Karen ni to 

 the Kachin (Ivakhyeil) Hills, Shan States, Yunnan to China. 



Nidification. Col. H. H. Harington writes (Journal B.N.H.S., 

 xix, p. 121) : " It always seems to build its nest, which is of the 

 usual Bulbul type, within 2 or 3 feet of the ground, generally 

 placing it in a bramble-bush amongst long grass and weeds, and 



