MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 28) 
which was situated in a place where I dared not venture with any degree of safety. 
I followed the bird from bush to bush and from tree to tree, but as soon as [ 
would approach sufficiently close to grab it, it would fly off again. This lasted for 
vbout an hour and showed mo that the bird had fairly good powers of flight- 
During my chase after the young bulbul, the behaviour of the parent birds was 
very noticeable. Of course, they were full of alarms and curses. As a rule they 
would follow the young bird about, sitting on the same branch with it, but flying 
off again as soon as I came too close. On several occasions, however, one or the 
other, and sometimes both parent birds would suddenly fly down to the ground, 
and there tumble and roll about in a most peculiar manner, or flutter about with 
one of their wings hanging helplessly as if it had been broken. I do not know 
whether bulbuls often behave like this, but this is the first occasion on which [ 
have seen them doing so. 
While chasing the young bulbul I noticed what may possibly be an example 
of the parental instinct of love for the offspring. Before I came across the young 
bulbul, I noticed a pair of Dark-grey Bush-Chats (Oreicola ferrea) which seemed 
to be in a very disturbed state of mind at my presence. A little search revealed 
a young bush-chat seated quietly in the middle of a small shrub. I had no desire 
to capture the young bird, so I left it alone and passed on, but the parent birds 
followed me with great pertinacity, giving vent to alarm cries the whole time. 
The parent bush-chats followed me till I came across the young bulbul. Up to 
that time perhaps they were concerned at my discovering their own offspring, 
but now they joined in the cries raised by the old bulbuls! The bush chats 
seemed to forget that they had a young one of their own and devoted their atten- 
tions to the young bulbul! Although in my hunt after the bulbul, I twice passed 
the bush where the bush-chat was, its parents thought no more about it and were 
entirely absorbed in the welfare of the young bulbul! I do not profess to know 
whether this is reason or instinct, but I am inclined to think it is instinct. Pre- 
sumably the bush-chats recognised the bulbul as a young bird and instinct im- 
pelled them to see to its safety ; and presumably also the bush-chats forgot about 
their own young one on account of the behaviour of the parent bulbuls. If 
there had been no buibuls to distract the attention“of the bush-chats they would 
have concerned themselves about their own young one, as indeed they were 
doing when I first found it. Otherwise, why would the bush-chats trouble about 
the young of a bird of another species, when they had a young one of their own 
to look after? And why did the bush-chats not leave me alone when they discover- 
ed that I was after a young bulbul and not a young bush-chat ? Perhaps the 
maternal (and paternal, I suppose) instinct was suppressed by intense fear, and the 
birds were only thinking of raising an alarm and nothing else. This view may per- 
haps be the right one, as at one time during the chase after the young bulbul, [ 
counted the following birds: the two adult bulbuls, the two adult bush-chats, 
a male house-sparrow, a green-backed tit, and a pair of laughing-thrushes, all 
helping to make an awful din, and to shout advice to the young bulbui ! 
S. BASIL-EDWARDES.* 
Sma, 25th July 1921. 
No. XVII.—AN AUBINOID OTOCOMPSA EMERIA. 
Some time back I had experience of two “‘ freaks * among ‘‘ Bulbuls ”. One 
was an albino Molpastes and the other a melanistic specimen of the same species. 
I have been fortunate enough to come across another case of albinism in another 
species—the Otocompsa emeria, the widely known Red-Whiskered Bulbul. The 
bird was caught wild and brought for sale. Below I give a description of its 
colouration :— ' 
All those parts, the head and around it which were deep black, have lost this 
vivid colour. The forehead, lores and the front part of the cheeks are dark 
* See footnote page 267. 
36 
