PYCNONOTUS. 37 



Hab. Southern China to Ningpo, also the Burmese hills and the more 

 hilly and richly wooded parts of Tenasserim, north of 13 N. lat. (Sharpe). 

 According to Gates, Capt. Bingham found it abundant in the Thoungyeen 

 Valley, and Capt. Wardlaw-Ramsay procured it in Karennee at from 1,000 to 

 2,000 feet elevation. 



453. PyCHOnotUS pygSBUS (Hodgs.}, Horsf. and Moore, Cat. B. 

 Mus. E. I. Co. i. p. 239; Jerd., B. Ind. ii. p. 93, No. 461; Sharpe, Cat. 

 B. Br. Mus. vi. p. 128. Molpastes pygaeus, Hume, Str. F. 1873, p. 378; 

 id., Nests and Eggs, Ind. B. p. 290; id , Sir. F. 1875, p. 126; id., Sir. F. 

 1879, p. 98 ; Scully, t. c. p. 297. The COMMON RED-VENTED BULBUL. 



Crown of the head, which is crested, and the nape black ; sides of the face 

 also black ; ear coverts glossy chocolate brown ; throat and foreneck black, 

 shading off into brown on the breast, the lower feathers of which are edged 

 with whity brown ; hind nape and upper back deep chocolate brown, the 

 feathers margined paler ; lower back and rump more ashy with subterminal 

 marks of brown to each feather ; upper tail coverts white ; tail dark sepia 

 brown tipped with white ; wings brown, all the coverts and quills edged with 

 paler brown, rather ashy on the greater coverts and primaries ; under surface 

 of body dull ashy white, with mottlings of dark brown about the middle of 

 each feather ; under tail coverts crimson ; under wing coverts ashy white with 

 dark brown centres to the feathers ; bill black ; feet dusky; iris dark brown. 



Length. 7-8 to 8 inches; wing 3-85 ; tail 3-8 to 3-9 ; tarsus 0*9 ; culmen O'8. 



Hab. Throughout Lower Bengal as far south as Midnapore and the jungles 

 stretching thence to Central India north of the Nerbudda, also the Himalayas 

 to 7,000 feet from Kumaon eastward to Assam. (Sharpe.) Under " Obs." 

 Mr. Sharpe remarks that the Common Red-vented Bulbul is easily dis- 

 tinguished from the other races or species by its long crest and chocolate brown 

 ear coverts ; the hind neck is black like the head, which colour also occupies the 

 sides of the neck and the throat extending well on to the foreneck. Specimens 

 in the British Museum from Darjeeling are the same, also those from Nepaul, 

 Kumaon, Calcutta, Cachar and Upper Assam, but in the Kumaon birds he 

 notices a slight tendency toward P. inter?nedius, which (from the Punjab) 

 he says is a good distinguishable race or species. It resembles the Nepaul 

 bird in having brown ear coverts, but the shade of black is not so strongly 

 pronounced on the hind neck and chest ; the abdomen is uniform greyish 

 ash color, the brown shading of the chest not extending beyond that part, the 

 breast being mottled with a few brown centres to the feathers." In any 

 case the characters given above are not sufficient to define intermedius ; some- 

 thing more than shades of color is wanted by which it should be distinguished 

 with certainty from the typical forms. I there f >re exclude P. intermedium, 

 and extend the range of pyg&us to Cashmere and Afghanistan. 



