L70 crateropodidjE. 



northwards throughout the Central Provinces, Chota-Nagpoor, 

 Rajpootana (the eastern portions), the plains of the North- Western 

 Provinces, Oudh, Behar, and Western Bengal, breeds in the 

 plains country chiefly in June and July, although a few eggs may 

 also be found in April, May, and August. In the Nilghiris the 

 breeding-season is from February to April, both months included. 



Elsewhere I have recorded the following notes on the nidiflcation 

 of this species in the neighbourhood of Bareilly : — 



" Close to the tank is a thick clump of sal-trees (Shorea robusta), 

 the great building-timber of Northern India, whose natural home 

 is in that vast sub-Himalayan belt of forest which passes only 30 

 miles to the north of Bareilly. 



" In one of these a Common Madras Bulbul had made its home. 

 The nest was compact and rather massive, built in a fork, on and 

 round a small twig. Externally it was composed of the stems 

 (with the leaves and flowers still on them) of a tiny groundsel- 

 like (Seneeio) asteraceous plant, amongst which were mingled a 

 number of quite dead and skeleton leaves and a few blades of dry 

 grass : inside, rather coarse grass was tightly woven into a lining 

 for the cavity, which was deep, being about 2 inches in depth by 

 3 inches in diameter. 



" This is the common type of nest ; but half an hour later, and 

 scarcely 100 yards further on, we took another nest of this same 

 species. This one was built in a mango-tree, towards the extre- 

 mity of one of the branches, where it divided into four upright 

 twigs, between which the Bulbul had firmly planted his dwelling. 

 Externally it was as usual chiefly composed of the withered stems 

 of the little asteraceous plant, interwoven with a few jhow-shoots 

 (Tamarix dioica) and a little tow-like fibre of the putsan (Hibiscus 

 cannabinus), while a good deal of cobweb was applied externally 

 here and there. The interior was lined with excessively fine stems 

 of some herbaceous exogenous plant, and there did not appear to 

 be a single dead leaf or a single particle of grass in- the whole 

 nest. 



" The eggs, however, in both nests, three in each, closely resem- 

 bled each other, being of a delicate pink ground, with reddish-brown 

 and purplish-grey spots and blotches nearly equally distributed 

 over the whole surface of the egg, the reddish brown in places be- 

 coming almost a maroon-red. Two eggs, however, that we took 

 out of a nest, similar to the first in structure but situated like the 

 second in a mango-tree, were of a somewhat different character 

 and very different in tint. The ground was dingy reddish pink, 

 and the whole of the egg was thickly mottled all over with very 

 deep blood-red, the mottlings being so thick at the large end as to 

 form an almost perfectly confluent cap. Altogether the colouring 

 of these two eggs reminded one of richly coloured types of 

 Neophron's eggs. Some of the Bulbuls' eggs that we have taken 

 earlier in the season were much feebler coloured than any of 

 those obtained to-day, and presented a very different appearance 

 with a pinkish-white ground, and only moderately thickly but very 



