FRUIT-SUCKERS. 



41 



mandible somewhat reddish ; feet brown ; iris white. 

 Female above brown, with greyish centres to feathers 

 of head and back ; upper tail-coverts more rufescent ; 

 lessor and median wing-coverts brown, with a subter- 

 ininal ashy 'bar; greater coverts with a broader bur; 

 bastard-wing and primary-coverts blackish ; flights 

 black, edged with bronze-green ; primaries with a white 

 spot at base, inner secondaries brown ; tail-feathers 

 dark brown, slightly rufescent -below ; crown of head 

 like the back ; lores and feathers round eye blackish ; 

 ear-coverts blackish-brown ; cheeks and under surface 

 dull white, partly washed with rufous ; throat, -breast 

 and sides of body mottled with brown ; thighs dark 

 brown ; under wing-coverts centred and edged with 

 brown, those near edge of wing entirely dark brown ; 

 axillaries brown at base ; bill black, dusky yellow at 

 gape; feet black; iris white. Hab., Himalayas from 

 Cashmere to Sikhim, Dacca, and Assam, through Burma 

 to Tenasserim. 



Even up to 1890 this bird was associated with the 

 Glossy Starlings, but in Gates' edition cf Hume's 

 "Nebts and Eggs of Indian Birds," p. 162, we read : 

 " The eggs are so different in character from those of 

 all the Starlings that dou'bts might necessarily arise as 

 to whether this species is placed exactly where.it ought 

 to be by Jerdon and others. I possess at present only 

 three eggs of this bird, which I owe to Captain Hutton. 

 They are decidedly long ovals, much pointed towards 

 the small end, and in shape and coloration not a little 

 recall those of Myiophoneut femmincki. The eggs are 

 glossless, of a greenish or greyish-white ground, more 

 or less profusely speckled and spotted with red, reddish 

 brown, and dingy purple. In two of the eggs the 

 majority of the markings are gathered into a broad 

 irregular speckled zone round the large end. In tha 

 third egg there is just a trace of such a zone, and no 

 markings at all elsewhere. In length thev vary from 

 1.03 to 1.08 and in breadth from 0.68 to 0.74." 



Jerdon writes of it : " It frequents the valleys, about 

 Simla and Mussoores, up to 6,000 feet, lives in small 

 flocks of five or *-ix ; ' its note and flight,' says Hutton, 

 'are very much like those of Stitrnus vulgaris, and it 

 delights to perch on the very summit of the forest trees. 

 I have never seen it on the ground, and its feed appears 

 to consist of berries. It nidificates in the holes of trees, 

 lining the cavity with bits of leave.? cut by itself ; the 

 eggs are usually three to five, of a delicate pale sea 

 green, speckled with blocd-like stains, which sometimes 

 tend to form a ring near the larger end.' Dr. Adams 

 says that it frequents rice fields, or the sides of moun- 

 tain streams, and that it is shy and timid." ('' Birds of 

 India," Vol. II., pp. 336-7.) 



In July. 19G2, Mr. E. W. Harper, who also presented 

 this bird to cur Zoological Gardens, wrots to offer me 

 a specimen, which reached me on August 1st. Mr. 

 Harper informed me that he considered its affinity to 

 the Starlings very doubtful, and this naturally incited 

 me to try to discover, by watching its habits in cap- 

 tivity, what birds it most closely resembled. Mr. Harper 

 had already pointed out that it was " a hopping bird, 

 and did not use its mandibles as dividers after the 

 manner of Starlings." 



I fed the -bird as I do other fruit-eating species, but 

 it was very weak, and not in particularly good 

 plumage ; nevertheless, it was easy to see that it in 

 no respect behaved like a Starling. It always flew 

 direct to the feed vessel, and immediately began to 

 feed, piercing the fruit with slightly-opened mandibles, 

 between which the tongue was alternately inserted and 

 retracted ; it ate very little soft food, but the whole of 



the fruit supplied to it. In all these points its behaviour 

 corresponded exactly with that of a Bulbul, and, in an 

 article which I published in The Avicitltural Maijazinv, 

 for December, Ib02, I expressed the belief that its right- 

 ful place was with that group of birds. 



Unhappily the bird did not gain strength, but died 

 on September 25th ; I therefore sent the body to the 

 Natural History Museum, in order that Mr. Pycraft 

 might study its anatomy, and thereby decide as to its 

 natural position. I was much interested to hear that 

 be decided in favour of its relationship to the Bulbuls. 



Knowing that Colonel Charles Bingham was familiar 

 with the species in its native haunts, I asked him, 

 without stating my own belief, what he considered the 

 Spotted-wing to be. His reply was: "Undoubtedly 

 a Bulbul ; it agrees with the Bulbuls in almost all its 

 actions when at liberty." 



I therefore do not hesitate to place the Spotted-wing 

 here, instead of among the Starlings. 



Chloropsis. 



Although this genus seems somewhat related to the 

 Bulbuls, its members are so utterly dissimilar, both in 

 colouring and form, that I have always objected to 

 calling them Bulbuls. In general aspect they remind 

 one of the Honeysuckeis, and for this reason 1 proposed 

 (" Foreign Bird-keeping," Part 1, p. 17) to ca.ll them 

 Fruit-suckers. As I then pointed out, they were 

 formerly placed in tha Mdiphagidce by Bonaparte and 

 Gray, and were regarded by Blyth as somewhat allied to 

 the Honeysuckers, though structurally they are much 

 nearer to the Bulbuls. 



Mr. Frank Finn (The Avicultural Magazine, 1st ser., 

 Vol. VIII., p. 86) proposes, three years later, that they 

 shall be called " Harewa," a name by which they are 

 known to the natives in India (but which to us has no 

 meaning) ; meanwhile my name for these birds has 

 caught on, and is now very generally adopted. Mr. 

 Finn ccnnders these birds to be a link between the 

 true Bulbuls and the Babblers. 



With regard to the feed for the species of Chlcropsis, 

 Mr. Finn says they " are very easy to keep, devouring 

 soft fruit and insects with equal avidity, and hipping 

 up sweetened milk-sop with great gusto." 



Some years ago I knew a gentleman who spent much 

 money in importing these birds, which he fed exactly 

 in the manner above suggested, and speedily lost them 

 all. The late Mr. Abrahams, who saw them with me, 

 said that the milk-sop treatment never suited them, but 

 that they did well upon potato and egg chopped up 

 together, with fruit and a few mealworms. 



That which suffices to keep a bird in health in India 

 does not answer at all in this country, or we might 

 keep half our in ectivorous birds upon peameal and 

 maggots, which (according to what Jerdon tells us) 

 seem to be, to all intents and purposes, the staple foods 

 for Indian insectivorous birds. In any case, a com- 

 bination of milk and more or less acid fruit, dees not 

 commend it- elf to me as a likely food to keep a delicate 

 bird in health, consequently I should not try it myself, 

 particularly after seeing how speedily three or four 

 lovely specimens of Chlcrojisis became ill, and died 

 when thus fed. 



Although I have on several occasions had the chance 

 of purchasing at least two species of Chloropsis, the 

 deaths which I had heard of made me nervous of giving 

 the necessarily high price for these lovely birds, or 1 

 should certainly have fed them precisely as I do my 

 other fruit-eating inaectivors. 



