OTOCOMPSA. 179 



number of this year's young birds well grown, but as yet without 

 the red cheek-tuft. 



" They build in clumps of moong-grass about 2 to 3 feet from 

 the ground. One I found in the tendrils of a creeper about 20 feet 

 from the ground. The nest is well fixed in the grass and fastened 

 to it by the intertwining of some of the fibres of which it is 

 composed. It is cup-shaped, and measures 4 inches in diameter, 

 about 0-75 in thickness, with an egg-cavity 2'75 in diameter and 

 1"5 deep. 



" The nest is formed of roots, twigs, and grass loosely worked 

 together, and over the exterior, with the view of binding the mass 

 together, dried or skeleton leaves, pieces of cloth, broad pieces of 

 grass, and plaintain-bark are fastened carelessly on by means of 

 cobwebs and the silk from cocoons. The egg-cavity is lined with 

 fine roots. 



" I never have found more than three eggs ; on several occasions 

 only two." 



I do not think it possible to separate the Andaman bird. Of its 

 nidification in those islands Mr. Davison says : — " I found a nest 

 of this species in April near Port Blair, in a low mangrove-bush 

 growing quite at the edge of the water ; it (the nest) was cup- 

 shaped and composed of roots, dried leaves, and small pieces of 

 bark, lined with fine roots and cocoa-nut fibres ; it contained three 

 eggs, with a pinkish-white ground thickly mottled and blotched 

 with purplish red, the spots coalescing at the thicker end to form 

 a zone." 



Mr. J. E. Cripps writes from Eastern Bengal : — " Very common 

 and a permanent resident ; it freely enters gardens and orchards. 

 In my garden there was a kaminee-tree (Murraya exotica), in 

 which I found a nest of this species on the 27th March in course 

 of construction ; and on looking at it on the 12th April found two 

 young that had. just been hatched. Cane-brakes are favourite 

 places for them to nest in. On the 6th May I found a nest in one 

 of these about 4 feet off the ground, and containing three partly 

 incubated eggs. This species does not, as a rule, build in such 

 exposed situations as M. bengalensis ; it eats the fruit of jungly 

 trees, Ficus, &c, as well as insects." 



On the breeding of this Bulbul in Pegu Mr. Oates remarks : — 

 " This bird breeds as early as February, on the 27th of which 

 month I procured a nest with two eggs nearly hatched. It stops 

 nesting, I think, at the beginning of the rains." 



Mr. W. Davison informs us that he " took a nest of this bird at 

 Bankasoon, in Southern Tenasserim, on the 15th March. It was 

 placed in a small bush growing in an old garden about 4 feet above 

 the ground. The nest was of the usual type, a compactly-woven 

 cup, composed externally of dry twigs, leaves, &c, the egg-cavity 

 lined with fibres. It contained three nearly fresh eggs." 



The eggs in size, colour, and shape closely resemble those of 

 Molpastes leucotis. All that I have said in regard to these latter is 

 applicable to those of the present species, and, so far as varieties of 



