Contributions to the Ornithology of India, 8j'c. 181 



is a horny brown, pale fleshy on lower mandible ; the irides are 

 brown. Weight, 0-45 to 07 oz. 



Description. — The lores, and a circle round the eye, pure white. 

 The whole upper parts olive brown, paler and yellower on the 

 head, and somewhat conspicuously ting-ed with rufous on the 

 back and sides of the neck, each of the feathers of the head, 

 back, and sides of the neck, upper back, and scapulars with a 

 dark brown central stripe ; the rump and upper tail coverts un- 

 striated ; the tail olive brown, the central feathers very broad , 

 in good specimens 0"6 in width, obsoletely barred (as are the 

 laterals also, though less conspicuously so) somewhat darker ; 

 the lateral tail feathers very narrowly margined at the tips with 

 fulvous white and equally narrowly margined on the outer 

 webs slightly paler, and more rufescent. The tail, when perfect, 

 consists of twelve feathers, very much graduated ; the external 

 tail feathers are nearly 3"75 shorter than the central ones, and 

 barely exceed the lower tail coverts ; the ear coverts are min- 

 gled grey and white. From the base of the lower mandible on 

 either side of the throat, a double line of little brown spots 

 descends below the eye and ear coverts. The lower tail coverts 

 are deep ferruginous, the vent feathers, sides, and flanks, tinged 

 brownish, the feathers of the two latter with narrow yellowish 

 brown central streaks ; the rest of the lower parts pure white ; 

 wing lining, brownish white. The fifth and sixth quills are 

 equal and longest ; the fourth is about 0*05 shorter ; the third 

 about 0*23, the second about 0'5, and the first, 0'9 shorter than 

 the fifth. In some specimens the ground color of the head, espe- 

 cially towards the forehead, is almost albescent ; in others again 

 the rufous tinge on the back of the neck is much more conspi- 

 cuously marked. 



459.— Otocompsa leucotis, Gould, 



This white-eared bulbul is perhaps the very commonest bird 

 in Sindh, and in the eax-ly sunny mornings it might be seen and 

 heard singing most sweetly from the topmost sprays of all the 

 larger tamarisk bushes. It is a very tame, famihar, cheerful 

 little bird, and almost if not quite the only songster Sindh can 

 boast. Common as it is throughout the Punjab, Rajpootana, 

 and the upper portion of the North- West Provinces, it is 

 even more so in Sindh. It occurs also on the Mekran Coast 

 as far as Gwader. Jerdqn^s dimensions are somewhat small, a 

 male measured at random in the flesh was, length, 8 ; expanse, 

 11 "3 ; tail from vent, 3 '5 ; wing, 3"7 ; wings when closed, reached 

 to within two inches of end of tail. 



The color of the lower tail coverts in. this species taries from 



