12 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 1892. 



more or less to coalesce at the larger end, forming a blurred cap or 

 ring of deep dull purplish, with here and there a short fine line of 

 black or reddish-black. In some eggs the markings are rather 

 larger, being more blotches than freckles, but they are nearly always 

 both numerous and dark. In 1887 I took one clutch, and in 1888 

 another, and in 1891 again one, in which the freckles were very 

 pale and the eggs resembled those of Xanthixos flavescens Yerj 

 closely. The typical shape is a rather long regular oval. Twenty 

 eggs average exactly 1' by '7*. They vary in length between 1'12* 

 and '9', and in breadth between "66" and •73*'. 



There appears to be scarcely anything on record concerning this 

 bird, and personally I have very seldom observed it except during 

 the breeding season. It is by no means common even where found, 

 and is very local in its distribution. As far as I have been able to 

 ascertain, it is confined to the Hills above 4,000 feet, and generally 

 above five, the one exception to this is a place called Laishang, a 

 valley at an altitude of some three thousand feet and surrounded by 

 highrooky peaks on which a few of these birds may always be found and 

 from which they sometimes wander a short way down the valley. 

 The few birds that I have noticed during the cold weather were in 

 small flocks and engaged in feeding rather high up in biggish 

 trees. In the breeding season the flocks break up and the birds become 

 extremely wild and shy, continually skulking about low down in 

 thick scrub and similar jungle. Their notes are loud, full and rather 

 sweet, of very bulbul-like character, but at the same time easily 

 distinguished from the cries of the other members of this family. 



It appears to be found no lower down in the cold weather than in 

 the rains. The stomachs of those birds which I have examined were 

 full of insects, chiefly small beetles, and also a few hard seeds of sorts. 

 In one bird I found the remains of various soft winged insects, 

 including a small moth and many metallic winged-flies; from another 

 I extracted several tiny pieces of yellow gravel, all of the same size 

 and shape, viz., regular ovals of about -05" in length by about 'Ol* in 

 breadth at the centre. 



I once shot a pair of these birds who were feeding on a Ficus in 

 company with a flock of Hemixus flavala. 



{To he con tinned.) 



