478 EUBIGULA MELANICTEEA. 



Obs. The history of this species has been fully worked out by the late Lord Tweeddale in an article published in the 

 ' Ibis ' for 1866, in which is given a comprehensive review of the different names applied to it by various authors, 

 and a satisfactory conclusion arrived at as to which should have the priority. Vieillot's name of atrieajnllus, 

 founded on Le Yaillant's " Cap negre " (a title bestowed by the latter in 1802 upon a bird six specimens of which 

 he received from Ceylon), was thought to be the oldest, and is the one used by Layard in his notes on the orni- 

 thology of Ceylon. It, is, however, plainly demonstrated, in the article referred to, that the bird was sent from 

 Ceylon many years previous by Governor Loten and figured by Brown in 1770, in his ' Illustrations,' as the 

 Yellow-breasted Flycatcher, upon which plate Gmelin founded, in 17S8, his Muscicapa melanictera, thus establishing, 

 by fourteen years, the priority of this last-named specific title. Some doubt is maintained as to whether the 

 Cap negre is really a peculiar Ceylonese form after all ; for Gould described a species, said to be from Travancore, 

 under the name of Brachypus gularis, and which the Marquis of Tweeddale (he. eit.) contends, from the descrip- 

 tion of the skin, was identical with the Ceylon bird. Some years later Jerdon figured another species with a 

 red throat from Malabar, which he considered might be the same as Gould's bird, in the description of which no 

 mention was made of the red throat. He styled it Brachypus rtibineus, which title, however, he afterwards placed 

 as a svrionym of Brachypus gularis, in the ■ Birds of India;' and the latter name, I observe, is still in vogue with 

 Indian naturalists when writing of the Ruby-throated Bulbul. Now either Gould's bird was from Ceylon and 

 not from Travancore, or else it was from the latter place and he omitted to notice the red throat* in his 

 description ; or, failing this, perhaps he had to do with a young bird which had not acquired this distinguishing 

 character. If neither hypothesis holds good, then Gould's bird was actually the same as ours, which, therefore, 

 inhabits the South of India as well as Ceylon, and his name does not apply to Jerdon's Euby-throated Bulbul. 

 I canuot bring myself to accept this latter theory, as the present species has never since been detected in South 

 India, and I am loath to reduce it from its rank in this work as a Ceylonese bird. 



It is remarkable that the eye of the male should differ from that of the female. We find the same singular 

 character in the case of two other Ceylon birds, viz. the Eed-faced Malkoha and Palliser's Ant -Thrush. 



Distribution. — The Black-headed Bulbul occurs throughout all the forest-tracts of the low country, 

 ascending the mountains of the Kandyan and Southern Provinces to an altitude of about 5000 feet in the 

 former, and to the limits of the jungle in the latter. It is plentiful in suitable localities in the Western 

 Province, being found within 4 or 5 miles of Colombo ; it is also abundant in all the south-western hill- 

 regions, although almost absent from the arid maritime district between Hambantota and the Park country. 

 It is a common bird in all the forests of the northern half of the island, being numerous round Trincomalie and 

 along the coast to the north of that place. In Uva, Haputale, and the eastern coffee-districts it is found up 

 to the afore-mentioned altitude ; but I have not observed it so high on the western side. About Kandy and 

 the circumjacent districts it is very common, preferring to the forests the deep valleys of the Mahawelliganga 

 its affluents the Maha oya and Bilhul oya, as well as other similarly openly-wooded localities. 

 Mr. Holdsworth does not record it from Ai'ipu, the country in that immediate district being too open for it; 

 but I have no doubt but that it is found in the adjacent forests of the interior. 



Habits. — The " Cap negre " frequents shady luxuriant forest, low jungle, cheena-woods, deserted grounds, 

 the wooded borders of tanks, and so forth. It is very partial to forest, and is one of the commonest denizens 

 of Mich locality in Ceylon. It is met with either in pairs or three or four together, and at times is socially 

 inclined towards its neighbours of the forest, consorting with the Forest-Bulbul, Criniger ictericus ; and in less 

 heavily timbered spots may be found in company with the common White-eyebrowed Bulbul, Ixos luteolus. 

 It delights in the well- wooded shady ravines, watered by rocky streams, which intersect the patnas throughout 

 the Central Province; and while halting for an instant by these delightful brooks on my journeys from one 

 estate to another, I have generally heard its unpretending little warble, which is much like the syllables wliee- 

 wtiee, whee-ivhee, frequently repeated. It generally affects the lateral branches of large trees, and searches 

 about among the outspreading boughs for its food, which is chiefly insectivorous ; small seeds are sometimes 

 devoured by it, and I have found snails of some little size and also minute ammonites in its stomach. I have 

 occasionally seen small parties in the topmost boughs of large trees ; but to ascend thither is not its usual 

 habit, and in such cases it is probably enticed from the foliage beneath by the presence of other birds. 



* Lord Tweeddale latterly held this idea, which he expressed to me, in ejrist., shortly before his death. 





