THE BULBULS OF NORTH OAOHAR. tl? 



which the birds, which had seen it taken, at once went back to it, and 

 have since shown no desire to desert their eggs, which I expect to hatch 

 out in a day or two. From what I have been able]to observe, Bulbuls 

 seldom lay an egg each day until the)^ have completed their clutch ; 

 one day 1 think generally intervenes between each laying, and some- 

 times two days elapse between the depositing of the first and second 

 &ggi but not, I believe, between the succeeding eggs. 



Like other Bulbuls of this genus, the Burmese Bulbul is a very 

 quarrelsome bird, and the males often have most determined fights, 

 though they seldom seem to injure one another as the birds of the 

 genus Chloropsis so frequently do. 



I have often observed this bird pursuing white ants on the wing, 

 not merely taking short flights into the air, but hawking about very 

 much in the same manner as the Drongo-shrikes. On one occasion 

 I was witness of a most curious scene. 



Just outside the rest-house I was stopping in at the time, an 

 immense flight of white ants were rising into the air. On the 

 ground, busily feeding, were frogs, lizards, doees, and squirrels ; above 

 them several Racket-tailed Drongos of both species were flying 

 backwards and forwards to and from the trees on either side of the 

 road, taking the ants as they flew ; above them again these Bulbuls, 

 together with other species, were hawking high into the air, in 

 company with a pair of Red-billed Rollers, a few crows, and a 

 solitary kite, whilst of course the common Drongos were present 

 in swarms. 



molpastes bengalensis. 

 The Bengal Red-a^ented Bulbul. 



Oates' " Fauna of B. I.," Vol. I., p. 271 ; id., Hume's '' Nests and 

 Eggs, ^' Vol. I., P« 1^4; Hume's Catalogue No. 461; Murray's 

 "Avifauna," Vol. II., p. 37; Jerdon's "B. of I.," Vol. II., p. 93. 



Description. — Differs from M. hurmanicus in having the black of 

 the head continued over the nape and sides of the neck as far as the 

 upper back, and in having the lower breast much deeper, in colour a 

 blackish-brown. The ear-coverts are of a decidedly darker brown. 



Length about 9" ; wing 4" to 4-3" ; tail 3-9" to 4-3" ; tarsus -85 ", 

 bill at front -61"; from gape -92'. 



