BULBULS. 



39 



in the size of the spots, and the latter in the material 

 employed." 



I purchased a male of this species on the 8th June, 

 1899, and placed it in a large flight cage, where it still 

 remains in perfect health and plumage. About 1903 

 my friend Mr. Seth-Smith had two which at first he 

 thought might be eexes and hoped to be able to 

 breed with them ; he found them top aggressive to be 

 permitted their liberty and for a time confined them 

 in a flight, where, however, I believe they quarrelled ; 

 at any rate he eventually offered me one of these birds 

 on the chance of its proving to be a hen, and on the 6th 

 January, 1904, he gave it to me. _ I turned it into the 

 cage with my bird, which immediately attacked it so 

 furiously that I had to remove it to another flight-cage ; 

 shortly afterwards I heard it singing _exactly in the 

 same manner as iny old bird, so that it seemed clear 

 that both were cocks ; consequently when my friend 

 Mi?s Gladstone told me in 1906 that she was anxious 

 to obtain some Bulbuls I sent off the second specimen 

 to her. 



The song of this Bulbul is short but rapid and 

 brilliant ; it sounds like a rollicking dance over high 

 piano-notes, and I should think would be heard for a 

 considerable distance in the open air. 



Dr. Russ had a pair of this species which went to nest 

 in 1893, but a Porto Rico Pigeon interfered with it, so 

 that there was no result. He says that " when chasing 

 its mate, it hops round her either on branches or the 

 ground with highly erected crest and nape feathers, 

 drooping wings, and fan-like tail ; it indeed appears to 

 be white headed, but then it puffs out its entire 

 plumage so that it seems considerably larger than it 

 actually is. Now it gets out of the way of no other 

 bird, even though it be the largest and most powerful 

 inhabitant of the bird-room." 



WHITE-CHEKKED BTJLBTJL (Otocompsa leucogenys). 



Above ashy-brown with a faint olive tinge; crown 

 darker with long crest, the feathers of which have paler 

 edges ; lores and feathers round eyes black ; a white 

 streak from upper mandible to above front of eye ; ear- 

 coverts and cheeks at back white ; wing-coverts edged 

 with dull olive ; flights darker, ako edged with olive ; 

 upper toil-coverts washed with olive ; tail-feathers dark 

 brown, paler towards base, edged with olive, tipped with 

 white increasingly from central feathers outwards ; 

 throat blackish-brown, this colour extending round to 

 back of ear-coverts; breast and abdomen whity -brown, 

 middle of abdomen whiter; thighs ashy-brown; under 

 tail-coverts bright yellow; under wing-covert* and 

 axillaries ashy-brown, whiter towards edge of .wing, 

 tinged with yellow; flights brown, ashy along inner 

 webs; bill black; feet dark plumbeous; eyes pale 

 brown. Female probably duller and with more slender 

 bill. Young with dark iris. Hab., Himalayas from 

 Cashmere to Bootan, up to 5,000ft. elevation. (Sharpe.) 



Jerdon observes that this species " is most abundant, 

 in Sikhim, firom about 2,500 to 5,000 feet of elevation. 

 It feeds both on seeds, fruit, and insects. Hut ton 

 found the nest neatly made with stalks and grass, and 

 containing three or four eggs, rosy or purplish white, 

 with specks and f pets of dark purple or claret." {" Birds 

 of India," Vol. II., p. 91.) 



In Oates's edition of Hume's " Nests and Eggs of 

 Indian Birds " we read (pp. 175-176) that it breeds 

 from April to July, and at all heights from 3,000 to 

 7,000 feet. The nest is a loose, slender fabric, exter- 

 nally composed of fine stems of some herbaceous plant 

 and a few blades of gra.ss, and internally lined with 

 very fine hair-like grass. The nests may measure ex- 

 ternally, at most, 4in. in diameter ; but the egg-oavity, 



which is in proportion very large and deep, is fully 

 2|in. across by l|in. deep. As I before said, the nest 

 is usually very slightly and loosely put together, so 

 that it is difficult to remove it without injury ; but 

 sometimes they are more substantial, and occasionally 

 the cup is much shallower and wider than I have above 

 described. Four is the full complement of eggs." 



According to Dr. Ruse this is one of the most rarely 

 imported species ; he also asserts that it has not been 

 received either at the Amsterdam or London Zoological 

 Gardens ; but, as regards the latter, he is mistaken.. 

 There is no reason that I know oi why it should not 

 be freely imported. 



RED-EARED BULBTTL (Otocompsa jocosa). 



Head and crest black ; the ear-coverts white, with 

 a tuft of silky hair-like crimson feathers over the ears, 

 and extending beyond them ; the ear-coverts are bor- 

 dered beneath by a na,rrow line of black ; the upper 

 surface is pale brown, darker on the quills and tail, 

 especially towards the tip of the latter, which is white, 

 with the exception of the central feathers, but only 

 on the inner web, excepting on the outermost pair ; 

 under surface white from the chin ; the sides of the 

 breast dark brown, forming an interrupted belt. 



The female is smaller than the male, more golden- 

 brown on the back, ea;r-plume shorter, and her bill is 

 longer and more slender. Hab., Central Himalayas 

 to Assam, and (slightly modified) throughout Burma 

 and South China down the Malayan peninsula; also 

 Andaman Islands. This lively Bulbul is always on the 

 move; its flight, according to Jerdon, is "steady, but 

 not very rapid." According to Oates, it is "more fre- 

 quently seen in gardens than elsewhere " ; it especially 

 affects jungly and well-wooded districts. Its song is 

 an agreeable chirruping warble. Like the other Bulbuls, 

 after flying it erects its crest as it alights. It lives 

 chiefly on fruit, but also eats a few seeds and insects ; 

 it is said to rob gardens on the Nilgiris of peas, straw- 

 berries, etc. The nest is neat, solid, cup-shaped, about 

 4in. in diameter, and is formed exteriorly of twigs, 

 roo<ts>, and grass, covered with an outer layer of skeleton 

 leaves, lichen, pieces of cloth, broad-leaved grasses 

 or plantation bark, and compacted together with cob- 

 weibe or silk from cocoons ; it is lined with hair and 

 down, or fine roots. The- nest is usually built in clumps 

 of moong grass about two or three feet from the ground, 

 in bushes, tangled creepers, or thickets. The eggs, 

 which vary from two to three, or very rarely four in 

 number, are white with a pink tinge, marked especially 

 at the larger end with various shades of red or purplish. 



I purchased a pair of this species in 1896, and turned 

 them into a large flight-cage, where they agreed well 

 excepting when choosing a roosting-place for the night, 

 both sexes greatly desiring to sit next to the wires. 

 Although the male was slightly larger, and had a far 

 more powerful bill than the female, she always got her 

 own way in the end. 



Although the song of the male consists only of a few 

 flute-like notes, and the species is less confiding than 

 the Bulbuls of the genus Pycnonotus, the form and 

 colouring and the restless activity of these bird's are 

 very fas-cinatins. Unhappily, my hen onlv liveo! about 

 six months, and the cock bird died in less than a year 

 on the 24th June, 1897. I suspect that I did not give 

 them sufficient fruit. 



Wiener relates (" Cassell's Cage-Birds," p. 363) how a 

 female of this species in his possession built, on several 

 occasions, an artistic nest in a bush, laid three or 

 four pink eggs with chocolate-coloured spots, and sat 

 on them patiently ; but as there was no cock bird with 

 it, of course they came to nothing. He, however, con- 



