CEIXIGEE ICTEEICUS. 



ID 



Kandyan Province, it is a common bird in the forests up to an altitude of 3500 feet, and in the " Knuckles," 

 and on the slopes of the main range and the Peak wilderness, ascends to a greater elevation than this, but 

 does not, as far as I am aware, inhabit the immediate neighbourhood of Nuwara Elliya. In Uva it is very 

 numerous, affecting even little patches of jungle on the patna-streams. 



Those who have not collected much in the heavy forests of the low country have but little idea how 

 common a bird this Bulbul is in the particular localities which suit its habits. Kelaart wrote that it was a 

 common species in the low country; but Messrs. Layard and Holdsworth have taken exception to this 

 statement, inasmuch as they had not perhaps met with it themselves. Layard infers that Kelaart spoke of 

 locos luteolus, and it is possible that there may have been such misidentification ; but nevertheless, as I have 

 shown, it is a common bird in all the forests of the low country ; had Kelaart written of it, " common in 

 the low-country forests," his statement would have been beyond criticism. 



As regards the mainland, this species has only been found in the peninsula, and its range does not 

 appear to extend further north than Bombay. Dr. Fairbank, who records it as common on the Goa frontier 

 and rarely found on the Mahabaleshwar plateau, remarks that it may extend along the strip of country which, 

 with similar conditions of climate and food, reaches as far up the west coast as Surat. Mr. Bourdillon states 

 that it is a common bird in the Travancore hills, and in the Palanis it is said to inhabit an elevation of 

 4000 feet and upwards. Jerdon writes that it prefers mountainous regions at from 3000 to 5000 feet, being 

 abundant on the slopes of the Nilghiris at that altitude, although it is also occasionally found " at a few 

 hundred feet above the sea-level." 



Habits. — No bird that I am acquainted with appears to be more at home in the sobtude and shade of 

 the forest than the present. It is often met with associating in a little party far from the proximity of other 

 species, hopping actively about among the boughs of lofty trees or in the luxuriant sappling growth beneath 

 them, in which it finds no lack of insect-food, and, during the time that it is partaking thereof, testifies to a 

 happy existence by frequently flying on to some bare branch, to give out its quiet little warble and then 

 resume its sociable fellowship with its companions. I have always found it in the society of one or two of 

 its fellows, the little troop thus formed exhibiting a most restless character : their sombre-coloured backs and 

 wings and perpetual movement make it difficult to discern them among the foliage, although they may be 

 heard warbling close at hand ; and it not unfrequently happens that, when the jungle is at all thick, they 

 disappear without being detected, notwithstanding that the branches around have been diligently scrutinized 

 in the search for them. They do not, as a rule, keep to the tops of trees, but usually hunt for their food in 

 lateral branches or on the upper boughs of sapplings. Their low-toned varying notes are difficult to describe, 

 but, on the whole, form a not unpleasing little warble. Some of them resemble the sounds cly eye, te white up, 

 te whit up, which three modulations are continuously repeated for no little space of time. I have found its 

 food to be more insectivorous than frugivorous ; but in India it is said of it that the latter condition chiefly 

 obtains. Mr. Bourdillon writes that it wanders " about in small flocks, feeding almost entirely on fruits and 

 seeds." Jerdon says of it, in the Madras Journal Lit. and Sci. x. p. 249, "In all specimsns I have examined 

 I have found fruit only in its stomach ; but, from the strong bristles at the base of the bill, I suppose it 

 may, at certain seasons, partake of insects." 



Nidification. — I once found the nest of this bird in the Pasdun-Korale forests in August; little or nothing, 

 however, is known of its breeding habits iu Ceylon, so that it most likely commences earlier than that month 

 to rear its brood. My nest was placed in the fork of a thin sappling about 8 feet from the ground. It was 

 of large size for such a bird, the foundation being bulky and composed of small tw r igs, moss, and dead leaves, 

 supporting a cup of about 2\ inches in diameter, which was constructed of moss, lined with fine roots ; the 

 upper edge of the body of the nest was woven round the supporting branches. The eggs were two in number, 

 of a reddish-white ground-colour, rather thickly freckled throughout with sienna, and forming a well-marked 

 zone round the obtuse end. They were broad, rather stumpy ovals, and measured 0'97 inch in length by 

 0'70 inch in breadth. The situation of this nest was near a stream in the forest ; and many other old ones, which, 

 I believe, belonged to this species, were in similar spots. Mr. Hume, in his 'Nests and Eggs/ remarks that 

 some eggs which he received had " only the faintest trace of pale pinkish mottling towards the large end," 



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