64 Zoological Society : — 



Genus Phcenicornis, Swains. 

 Phcenicornis Peregrinus, Vig. 



I have not met with the nest and eggs of the small red bird, but I 

 believe the description given below is that of a young bird soon after 

 it had left the nest. " 18th September 1849. Whole of the upper 

 plumage olive-green, mottled about the head with pale yellow, a large 

 spot of which is behind the eye ; tips of the lesser wing-coverts pale. 

 Primaries and secondaries dark, with pale edges ; breast and belly 

 pale whitish-yellow, with yellow streaks ; legs and feet pale lead- 

 colour ; claws soft, as also the edges of the beak." 



Genus Iora. 



lORA TIPHIA. 



I have never met with the nest or eggs of this handsome little bird ; 

 but Dr. Jerdon, in his Catalogue of Indian Birds, says, " I once, on 

 the west coast, in the month of September, met with a nest of this 

 species in the fork of a low tree ; it was more neatly and carefully 

 made than any other of the few nests I have seen in this country. It 

 contained young ones." The Iora has a most wonderful power of 

 voice. At one moment it is heard uttering a low plaintive cry, at 

 the next a shrill whistle ; no one could have believed the notes to 

 have issued from the same throat. On the 29th of August, 1849, 

 I shot a female. The eggs in the ovaries were very large. The 

 gizzard contained the remains of a curious green insect, partly covered 

 with black hair. The tongue of this bird is furnished with two long 

 muscles, as in the woodpecker. 



Genus HiEMATORNIS. 

 HiEMATORNIS CAFER, CoMMON BuLBUL, 



This sprightly and truly Indian bird breeds during the months of 

 August and September. The first time that I noticed them building 

 in Augixst was on the 1 1th, and I foinid a nest with one fresh-laid egg 

 on the 2,")th of September. They build in thick bushes in gardens. 

 I found two nests in my garden at Ahmednuggur, one built in a 

 guava tree, and the other in a mass of creepers. The nest is com- 

 posed of fine twigs, bound together here and there with cobwebs, and 

 lined with fibres. The nest I send is lined with the fibre of the 

 cocoa-nut jjicked off a cocoa-fibre mat. I observed the old birds 

 picking at the mat when it was put out of doors. I do not know 

 the number of eggs which their nest generally contains. The egg is 

 ■^^ in. in length by a httle more than -f^ wide, of a rich madder 

 colour, spotted and blotched with grey and madder-brown. The only 

 egg which I possessed is inifortunately broken ; but a drawing in my 

 possession, most accurately painted by my sister-in-law, Miss Gardiner, 

 gives it very correctly. 



