THE BULBULS OF NORTH CACHAR. 129 



vicinity of villages, and may be observed on the banks of every 

 stream and the sides of every road. The flocks are sometimes rather 

 numerous, having as many as twenty or twenty-five members, but 

 more frequently they number some ten or a dozen. They are by no 

 means noisy birds, and have no great variety of notes. Their cry 

 may be written weet-tre-trippy-wit, but I am afraid syllables 

 convey little meaning when attempting to record the notes of a bird, 

 and this cry is one almost impossible to explain. It has no song, at 

 least that can really be so called, but during the breeding season 

 this call is prolonged by the last two words being repeated, and when 

 the bird utters it rapidly it is like a jerky, but sweet, short song. 



It frequently associates with both 0, emeria and Molpastes hur- 

 manicus and M. hengalensis, more rarely with other species of 

 bulbuls, and on one or two occasions I have seen it in company 

 with Chloropsis. 



In its general habits it resembles Otacompsa emeria too closely 

 to require further description. Its food, flight, &c., are all as in 

 that bird. 



Hypsipetes concoloe. 



The Burmese Black Bulbul. 



Gates' "Avifauna of India," Vol. I., p. 261; id., "Birds of B. 

 Burmah," Vol. I., p. 1 74 ; Murray's '* Avifauna of B, India," Vol. II., 

 p. 19; Hume's Catalogue, No. 446 his. 



Description. — Head, hind neck, back, and lesser wing-coverts 

 black, the edges of the feathers more or less metallic and giving a 

 gloss to the whole upper black plumage when not very closely 

 viewed ; median and greater wing-coverts brownish-grey, quills 

 dark brown, almost black, edged with grey ; rump and upper tail- 

 coverts dark grey; ear-coverts lightish -grey, contrasting strongly 

 with the colour which surrounds them. Lower part of cheeks, 

 throat, and whole lower plumage dark grey, the feathers of the 

 under tail-coverts margined with white, but much less broadly than 

 in H. psaroides. Tail brownish-black, the feathers edged with 

 greyish, the depth of this varying much in different individuals, 



NiDiPiCATioN. — This does not differ in any important detail from that 

 of H. psaroides, but taking the nests as a class, I think they average 



