THE BULBULS OF NORTH CACHAR. 5 
common Bengal bulbul (MJolpastes bengalensis). It was a good deal stouter, 
however, than 8 out of 10 of the nests of that bird, and was also more neatly 
and compactly made. Outwardly it was made of the tough brown stems of a 
climbing plant, together with a few fine soft twigs, and one or two coarse pieces 
of grass blades; inside these was a scanty, but neat, lining of fine grass-stems 
and a single skeleton leaf. It was placed in the fork of a stout branch of a 
thorny bush, some three feet from the ground. The surrounding country was 
dense jungle, merely a little lighter and clearer in the immediate vicinity. 
Heavy rain had fallen on the two days previous to my finding the nest, and 
when taken, it was sopped through and through, but it still, when removed, held 
well together, and was just as strong and compact as before when it again 
dried. 
The eggs were three in number, slightly incubated, and they, like the nest, 
may also be matched by many eggs of either I. bengalensis or burmanicus. 
The ground-colour is a pale fleshy-pink, and the markings consist of large and 
small blotches and freckles of reddish and purplish-brown, the underlying 
marks being a pale dull inky. Some of the primary blotches are very large 
varying from *1” to nearly °3” in length and up to ‘17” in breadth. 
The distribution of both blotches and freckles is fairly equal, and in two - 
eggs very numerous over the whole surface. In the third egg the marks are 
fewer in number, with the exception of the very pale secondary blotches. The 
texture is just the same as in the eggs of Molpastes, but there is a very faint 
gloss, 7 
They measure 97" X *65”, ‘96” X °60” and °93”%°64”. In shape they are 
long ovals, rather compressed towards the smaller end and slightly pointed. 
The nest was taken on the 12th of May, 1891, at an elevation of about 1,600 
feet. 
This bird is by no means rare in North Cachar, but I think it must be 
partially migratory in its habits, for some years it is quite plentiful, and during 
others hardly a single bird can be obtained. 
During the cold weather, and well on into May, it is found in large flocks in 
company with the next species (if it is a good species), keeping, asa rule, to 
scattered forest or light jungle of some kind, rarely being found in quite open 
country, and very nearly as seldom in heavy forest. It appears to be most 
common in valleys which are well wooded, but at the same time have frequent 
open spaces at no great distance from one another, and the J. atinga Valley and. 
the low hills surrounding the Tea Estates to the North-West of Cachar seem to 
be their most favourite haunts, It never, during the cold weather, seems ta 
descend to low bushes, keeping almost entirely to the higher trees and to the 
