486 PHTLLOENIS JEBDOXI. 



trees on irrigated laud near village tanks. It is common in the Jaffna peninsula, affecting the "Jack," 

 tamarind, and other trees cultivated in native compounds. 



In the ' Birds of India ' we read that the Green Bulbul " is spread over a great part of the continent of 

 India, not extending, however, to Lower Bengal or to the sub-Himalayan forests. It is extremely common 

 in the Western Provinces and in the jungles of the Eastern Ghats; but is more rare in the open country of 

 the Carnatic, Mysore, and Hyderabad. It is found in Central India at Mhow, Saugor, &c., and through the 

 vast jungles of Chota Nagpur up to Midnapore." Concerning the latter region, Mr. Ball writes that it occurs 

 abundantly throughout the division, and remarks that it is found pretty generally in the region to the south of 

 the Mahauadi river. Dr. Fairbank found it in the Palanis up to 4000 feet, and says that it frequents the hills 

 from Khaudala to Goa. It is not recorded by any observer in ' Stray Feathers ' from the north of India, 

 Assam, or Burmah, and does not, as far as is known at present, inhabit the eastern side of the Bay of Bengal. 

 Col. Tickell figures it, in his MS. Illustrations of Indian ornithology, from Tenasserim ; but Lord Tweeddale 

 remarks that its occurrence there is extremely doubtful ; in fact, though the plate represents the species, the 

 description refers to another, Ph. chhrocephalus. Furthermore, Mr. Hume remarks, in his list of the birds of 

 Tenasserim, that it certainly does not occur in that province. 



Habits. — This " Leaf-bird " frequents compounds, gardens, openly-wooded country, the edges of roads 

 leading through jungle, the borders of forests surrounding tanks, the outskirts of paddy-fields, banks of rivers, 

 and such-like places. It chiefly affects the topmost branches of trees, aud has a great partiality for the cocoanut- 

 palm, about the heads of which it searches for insects, uttering its whistle, which can often be heard when 

 the bird, hidden by the luxuriant fronds, is invisible from beneath ; it often clings to the leaves like a Titmouse, 

 and flits actively about among the sprigs of waving boughs in search of insects. The form of its bill is very 

 much that of a Honey-eater ; indeed, Bonaparte classed this genus among the Meliphagidae, to which it has 

 some affinity in the matter of habit, though its structure allies it to the short-footed Thrushes. There is, I 

 think, no doubt that it sometimes sucks the honey from flowers : I endeavoured to detect it in this while 

 in Ceylon, but was unsuccessful. Mr. Ball, however, writes (toc.cit.), " I have observed that it is especially 

 fond of the flowers of the parasitic Loranthus which grows on many trees ; so far as I could ascertain, it both 

 sips the nectar from the flowers and catches the insects attracted by the same." I have more than once seen 

 a little troop on the branches of a flowering tree, but was unable to ascertain if they were doing further than 

 catch the insects, which, as Mr. Ball remarks, are attracted by such a condition. Seeds may often be found in 

 its stomach, though they are not so generally partaken of as insects. 



When not breeding, the females of this species collect in little flocks, and may be found iu scattered 

 company, searching for food and constantly uttering a sharp monosyllabic chick note. The ordinary voice of 

 the males is comprised of a number of varied whistles ; indeed the bird is capable of mocking almost any 

 other species in the forest, and is a most clever imitator of the notes of Drongos, that of the white-bellied form 

 inhabiting the northern forests being most cleverly mimicked by it. These powers of imitation are well known 

 in India, and were first mentioned by Tickell, who remarks that it is a " most excellent mocker, and imitates 

 the notes of almost every small bird in the country." Blyth likens its call to that of the Indian Black Drongo 

 (Dici'urus macrocercus) , though softened down and mellowed; this uote, I imagine, is not natural to it, but is 

 simply an attempt at mimicry, which can be so cleverly executed that it would vary in tone according to 

 the particular King Crow that the bird was pleased to mock ! 



Nidification. — Common as this Bulbul is, I have never succeeded in finding or obtaining its nest. It 

 breeds, I imagine, in April or May in the Western Province. Layard says that it makes an open cup-shaped 

 nest ; and he sent one to Sir William Jardine from Pt. Pedro, which the latter describes as having been placed 

 upon a branch, and being flat in general form, and composed of soft materials, such as dry grass and silky 

 vegetable fibres, rather compactly woven with some pieces of dead leaf and bark on the outside, over which a 

 good deal of spider's web was worked. 



Captain Beavau, who records it as breeding in April in Manbhoom, writes of a nest that was brought to 

 him, " It is built at the fork of a bough and neatly suspended from it, like a hammock, by silky fibres, which 

 are firmly fixed to the two sprigs of the fork, and also form part of the bottom and outside of the nest. The 



