660 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XI. 



305- Pycnonotus luteolus, Less. 



A very local bird in Kanara shunning the heavy forest. It is found 

 occasionally along the coast from Karwar as far as Kumta, and is also 

 found in the neighbourhood of Sirsi. It is extremely common among 

 the "lankana " or wild heliotrope surrounding the old fort at Halyah 

 I have taken numbers of its nests there, generally suspended from the 

 " lankana " about one-and-a-half or two feet from the ground. The 

 eggs, which are two in number, vary much ; they much resemble those, 

 of M. hcemorrhous, but . while some are larger than any I have seen of 

 that species and very boldly marked, others are small and with very 

 few markings. 



313. MlCKOPUS PELEOOEPHALUS, Jercl. 



A rare and very local bird in Kanara. There used to be one pair in 

 the neighbourhood of Karwar at a particular spot on the road to Seizwa, 

 and I noticed them in the same place in three successive years. 



The birds were fairly common in the central part of Kumta about 

 Burgee and Kutgul, and also in the south-west of Sirsi and the west 

 of Siddapur, especially about Harsikatta. I only once have found a 

 nest, though I have no doubt a clutch brought to me belonged to this 

 bird, but as unauthenticated they are of no value. The only nest I 

 found was on the 16th March at Siddapur. I was assisting a boy to 

 climb up to a nest of Eulabes in. a woodpecker's hole in a silk-cotton 

 tree, when I noticed a small bird fly cut of a small bamboo bush be- 

 hind me, and on looking at the spot I saw a neat bulbul's nest ; it was 

 however empty, and I determined to visit it on the evening of my last 

 day at Siddapur. Tbis happened to be on the 21st, but official duties 

 kept me busy till almost sunset, and as I did not know what the bird 

 was and it might have been merely a rubbishy Otocampsa, I very 

 nearly gave it up, and actually tossed, up a coin to see whether I would 

 take the trouble to oo the half mile walk from my camp to visit it. 

 The result was that I did go, and on reaching the nest found it con- 

 tained one egg which a glance showed me was of a species whose egg 

 was new to me. I sat down at once to wait for the bird, and in five 

 minutes a small bird lit on a branch near, then flew to the bamboo and 

 seated herself on the nest. It saw me however in a moment, and 

 flew over my head alighting in a thick evergreen exactly between me 

 and the pink of the vanished sun. With my gun to my shoulder I 



