MOLPASTES. 171 



uniformly speckled all over with small spots of light purplish grey, 

 light reddish brown, and very dark brown. These eggs scarcely 

 seeni to belong to' the same bird as the boldly blotched and richly 

 mottled specimens that we have taken to-day." 



Writing from the neighbourhood of Delhi, Mr. F. B,. Blewitt says : 

 " This Bulbul breeds from the middle of May to about the middle 

 of August. Its selection of a tree for its nest is arbitrary, as I 

 have found the latter on almost every variety of bush and tree. 

 The nest is neatly cup-shaped, generally fragile in structure, though 

 I have seen many a nest strong and compact. The outer diameter 

 of the nest varies from 3 to nearly 4 inches, and the inner diameter 

 from 2 to almost 3 inches. 



" The chief material of the nest is, on the outside, coarse grass, 

 with fine Jehus or fine grass for the lining. Very frequently horse- 

 hair is likewise used for lining the interior of the cavity. 



" I have seen some nests bound round on the outside with hemp, 

 other kinds of vegetable fibres, and even spider's w r eb. 



" The regular number of the eggs is four." 



Mr. W. Theobald found the present species breeding in Mon- 

 ghyr in the fourth week of June. 



Mr. Nunn remarks : " I took a nest of this species at Hoshun- 

 gabad on 26th June, 1868, which contained four eggs ; it was 

 placed in a lime-tree, was composed of very small twigs, and Lined 

 inside with fine grass-roots ; it was cup-shaped, and measured 

 internally 2-25 inches in breadth by 1*75 in depth." 



The late Mr. A. Anderson wrote from Fut tehgurh : " On the 30th 

 April last (1874) I took a very beautifully and curiously constructed 

 nest of our Common Bulbul. In shape and size it resembled the 

 ordinary nest, but the curious part of it was that the upper por- 

 tion of the nest for an inch all round was composed entirely otyreen 

 twiys of the neein tree on which it was built, and the under surface 

 (below) was felted with fresh blossoms belonging to the same tree. 

 The green twigs had evidently been broken off by the birds, but 

 the flowers were picked up from off the ground, w 7 here they were 

 lying thick." 



Colonel Butler says: "The Madras Eed-veuted Bulbul breeds 

 in the neighbourhood of Deesa all through the hot w r eather and in 

 the monsoon. I found a nest at Mount Aboo in a garden on the 

 loth of April in the middle of a pot of sweet peas, containing three 

 fresh eggs. I found other nests in Deesa, from the llth May to 

 20th August, each containing three eggs. 



" The nest is usually built of dry grass-stems, lined with fine roots 

 and a few horsehairs neatly woven together. One nest 1 found 

 was in a very remarkable situation, viz. inside an uninhabited 

 bungalow upon the top of a door leading out of a sitting-room ; 

 the door was open and the bolt at the top had been forced back, 

 and it \vas between the top of the door and the top of the bolt 

 that the nest rested. The old bird entered the building by passing 

 first of all through the lattice-work of the verandah and then 

 through a broken window-pane into the room where the nest was 

 built." 



