24 THE BIRDS OF CALCUTTA. 



European birds. Both cock and hen are also equally well 

 dressed ; but the young are duller and look rather shabby, 

 especially as they have to wear a rusty-buff escutcheon 

 instead of a blood-red one. This curiously-placed bit of 

 colour seems a family feature with Bulbuls ; it is always 

 either red or yellow, however, when it occurs at all, other 

 tints being strictly barred. The only Bulbul which occurs 

 in Europe in the Cyclades bears a yellow patch, being 

 otherwise of a snuffy brown ; and this is possibly the bird 

 which has got mixed up with the Nightingale in Eastern 

 poetry, as it occurs in Palestine, and is there called Bulbul 

 by the Arabs. Bulbul in Persian is always supposed to 

 mean the true Nightingale, the lover of the rose, and there 

 seems to be no reason to doubt the correctness of the iden- 

 tification though it may be mentioned that the Persian 

 nightingale (Daulias golzii) is not absolutely identical with 

 the European bird. More to the point are the facts that 

 the Yarkandis call the Barred Warbler (Sylvia nisoria) 

 the Bulbul, and that the Palestine Bulbul (Pycnonotus 

 xanthopygus) above alluded to is a really fine singer. So 

 that whatever bird was called by the name to start with, 

 it seems to be about as indefinite among Orientals as 

 4 ' Mocking-bird ' ' and ' ' Sparrow ' ' are in our own lan- 

 guage. However, in India " Bulbul " is taken by both 

 natives and Europeans in a very definite signification for 

 a large group of pretty birds, of which our dark Bengal 

 species (Molpastes bengalensis) may very fairly claim to be 

 the type. He certainly is not much of a songster, but his 

 notes are never harsh and always singularly cheerful and 

 liquid, conveying an unequivocal sense of happiness and 



