276 CRATEROPODIDJE. 



288. Otocompsa emeria *. The Bengal Red-wldslcered Bulbul. 



Lanius emeria, Linn. S. N. i, p. 137 (1766). 



Lanius jocosus, Linn. S. N. i, p. 138 (1766). 



Muscicapa emeria, Linn. S. N. i, p. 326 (1766). 



Ixos monticola, McClell P. Z. S. 1839, p. 160. 



Ixos pyrrhotis, Hod(/s. in Gray's Zool. Misc. p. 84 (1844). 



Pycnonotus jocosus (L.~), Blyth, Cat. p. 208 ; Horsf. $ M. Cat. i, 



p. 238. 

 Otocompsa jocosa (L.'), Jerd. B. I. ii, p. 92 (part.) ; Godw.-Aust. J. 



A. S. B. xxxix, pt. ii, p. 106 ; Sharpe, Cat. B. M. vi, p. 157 ; Oates, 



B. B. i, p. 198. 



Otocompsa monticol-a (McClell.}, Godw.-Aust. J. A. 8. B. xxxix, 

 pt. ii, p. 106; xlv, pt. ii, p. 79; Bl. Sf Wald. Birds Burm. 

 p. 135 ; Hume, Cat. no. 460 ter. 



Otocompsa emeria (L.), Hume, N. 8f E. p. 287 ; Hume, S. F. ii, 

 p. 225, iii, p. 126 ; Armstrong, S. F. iv, p. 325 ; Oates, S. F. v, 

 p. 157; Anders. Yunnan Exped., Aves, p. 657; Hume fy Dav. 

 S. F. vi, p. 321 ; Cripps, S. F. vii, p. 280 ; Hume, Cat. no. 460 ; 

 Scully, S. F. viii, p. 296 ; Hume, S. F. xi, p. 181 ; Oates in Humes 



. 2nded. i, p. 178. 



The Red-iohiskered Bulbul, Jerd. ; Kanera bulbul, Hind. ; Kara 

 bulbul and Sipahi bulbul, Beng. 



Coloration. Forehead and crown of head, the lores, the front 

 part of the cheeks, and a narrow nioustachial streak surrounding 

 the ear-coverts and joining the crown black ; hinder part of cheeks 

 and the ear-coverts white ; a tuft of feathers springing from the 

 lower eyelid, and passing over the ear-coverts, crimson ; sides of 

 the neck and a broad crescent, interrupted in the middle of -the 

 breast, brownish black ; under tail-coverts crimson ; the lower 

 plumage white, washed with brown on the sides of the breast, the 

 flanks, and the thighs ; upper plumage and wings earthy brown, 

 the latter edged paler on the outer webs of the quills ; tail dark 

 brown, the outer four, or sometimes five, pairs of feathers tipped 

 with white ; edge of wing pale pink. 



The nestling does not acquire the red eye-tufts till it is two or 

 three months old, and the under tail-coverts at first are pink. 



Iris hazel-brown ; mouth yellow ; bill, legs, and claws black. 



Length nearly 8 ; tail 3*5 ; wing 3'5 ; tarsus '8 ; bill from 

 gape '85. 



The variations which occur in the plumage of this bird through- 

 out its great range are very trivial, and it is hard to understand 

 how it became suggested that there were two or more species or 

 races, as some naturalists at one time thought. The crimson ear- 

 tuft varies somewhat in size and depth of tint. It attains its 



* I believe that the name of L. emeria of Linnaeus applies to the Bengal bird, 

 as the specimen is distinctly stated to have come from Bengal. In this case 

 the term L. jocosus, applied to the Chinese bird, which is identical with that 

 from Bengal, becomes a synonym, and the specific name of the Southern-Indian 

 bird cannot be taken from Muscicapa emeria, L , as proposed by Sharpe, even 

 if Linnaeus's name was given to that species, which is doubtful. See Hume's 

 exhaustive argument on this subject (S. F. xi, p. 181). 



