630 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXVIl. 



bird has almost all the general features of the Bengal Bulbul wth its thick crest 

 growing from every portion of the crown and nape, and chocolate-brown ear- 

 coverts. The colour of the body is generally black, and not relieved by the pale 

 edgings, while the black of the crown is not sharply defined but extends well 

 on to the back, and continues upto the end of the tail. The chin throat 

 and breast are deep black. The portion below the breast is black and smoky 

 brown. The wings are distinctly brown. The bill is black. 



As in all cases of complete melanism, there is, in the case under considera- 

 tion, a total lack of the white colour — there being no white on the upper tail 

 coverts or white tips to the tail-feathers, or whitish margins or edges in the 

 wing-coverts, scapulars, lower breast or lower back. The result is to give the 

 bird a brilliant black appearance, intensified by the absence of lighter parts 

 in their normal settings. The absence of the bright crimson under-tail patch 

 is the most remarkable in as much as it is the most characteristic trait of 

 Molpastes. Here also the colour of the under-tail coverts is in no way difierent 

 from the general body colour. 



The owner of the bird lives close to my residence. He had the bird when 

 it was a nestling of a few days and has reared it now for four years. He tells 

 me that he found sometime ago a similar case of melanism, but there the colour 

 of the under-tail covert changed from black into bright crimson in the course 

 of a couple of years. 



Aviculturists, I presume, have fi'equent experiences of deviations from the 

 normal colouring of birds, but are not agreed as to the reasons for this diver- 

 gence. Some attribute it to vigorous constitution, while others to delicate 

 health. I showed the black bulbul under review to Mr. S. Basil-Edwardes, 

 a member of the Bombay Natural History Society, while he was at Calcutta 

 Both he and myself examined the bird critically and found it to be in sound 

 health. The feet appeared slightly injured (due, perhaps, to confinement in 

 a small cage), and lacked the intensity of colour found in normal birds. There 

 are various causes that bring about variations in the colour of birds. Of these 

 the cage or aviary life and its attendant artificial rationing very often conduce 

 to such variations in coloiir. A silver-eared Mesia of mine {Mesia argeniauris) 

 after three years of aviary life, began to show a remarkable tendency to mela- 

 nism and I have had similar experiences of several birds in my a^dary, all of 

 Avhich I found to be in full health. I do not, however, wish to fix upon one or 

 the other of these causes as responsible for the change in colour in the bulbuls 

 under consideration, and want only to point out that bad or good health does 

 not exhaust the list of causes that bring about the phenomenon. 



SATYA CHURN LAW. 



Calcutta, October 1920. 



No. X.— THE BREEDING OF THE EASTERN ORPHEAN WARBLER 

 SYLVIA JERDONL BLYTH, IN THE N. W. FRONTIER PROVINCE. 



It may be worth recording the fact that a correspondent of mine sent me a 

 clutch of four eggs, nest, and one of the parents (unsexed, but presumably the 

 male) of the above species. 



This nest was taken at Cherat, elevation 4,500 ft. above sea -level, on 28th 

 May 1920. The situation was 5 ft. from the ground in a " Scrubby bush " as 

 my friend tells me. 



The materials used are grass-bents (stem and blade), which were green when 

 the nest was newly built, and very line fibres ; the whole being profusely deco- 

 rated with white vegetable do^rai. There is no attempt at lining the interior. 

 The nest is cup-shaped. 



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