MOLPASTES. 173 



universal purple tint. In about half the eggs there is a tendency 

 to exhibit, more or less, an irregular zone or cap at the large end, 

 but solitary eggs occur in which there is a cap at the small end. 

 Three pretty well marked types may be separately described. 

 First, an egg thickly mottled and streaked all over with deep blood- 

 red, which is entirely confluent over one third of the surface, 

 namely at the large end, and leaves less than a third of the ground- 

 colour visible as a paler mottling over the rest of the surface. Then 

 there is another type with a very delicate pure pink ground, and 

 with a few large, bold, deep red blotches, chiefly at the large end, 

 where they are intermingled with a few small pale inky-purple 

 clouds, and with only a few spots and specks of the former colour 

 scattered over the rest of the surface. Lastly, there is a pale dingy 

 pink ground, speckled almost uniformly, but only moderately 

 thickly, over the whole surface, with minute specks and spots of 

 blood-red and pale inky purple. 



The dimensions are excessively variable. In length the eggs 

 vary from O7 to 1*02, and in breadth from O6 to 0-75, but the 

 average of sixty eggs measured was O89 by O65. 



279. Molpastes burmanicus (Sharpe). The Burmese Red- 

 vented Bulbul. 



The Burmese Red-vented Bulbul occurs from Manipur down to 

 Rangoon. Writing from Upper Pegu, Mr. Gates says : " On the 

 29th July I found a nest in the extremity of a bamboo-frond 

 forming one of a large clump near my house at Boulay. It was 

 circular, the internal diameter about 2'5 and the external 4 inches ; 

 the depth inside 1*5, and the total height 2*5. Foundation of dead 

 leaves, the bulk of the nest coarse grass and small roots, and the 

 interior of much finer grass carefully curved to shape. Altogether 

 the nest was a very pretty structure. Two eggs measured 0-9 by 

 0'62 and O65. Another nest found at the same time was placed 

 in a small shrub about 4 feet from the ground. It was very similar 

 in construction and size to the above and contained three eggs." 



Subsequently writing from Lower Pegu, he says : " Breeds 

 abundantly from May to September, and has no particular prefer- 

 ence for any one month." 



281. Molpastes atricapillus (Vieill.). The Chinese Bed- 

 vented Bulbul, 

 Molpastes atricapillus ( V.\ Hume, Cat. no. 462 ter. 



Mr. J. Darling, Jr., found a nest of the Chinese Red-vented 

 Bulbul in Tenasserim with three fresh eggs on the 16th March. 

 It was built in a bush little more than a foot above the ground on 

 a hill-side. 



Except that they seem to run smaller, these eggs are not dis- 

 tinguishable from those of the other species of this genus, and 

 there is really nothing to add to the description already given of 

 the eggs of M. Jicemorrhous. The three eggs measured O79 by O6. 



