Black Bulhuls 



in appearance. Take a king-crow (Dicrurus 

 ater), dip his bill and legs in red ink, cut down 

 his tail a little, dust him all over so as to make 

 his glossy black plumage look grey and shabby, 

 ruffle his feathers, apply a little pomade hon- 

 groise to the feathers on the back of his head, 

 and make some of them stick out to look like 

 a dilapidated crest, and you may flatter your- 

 self that you have produced a very fair imita- 

 tion of a black bulbul as it appears when flitting 

 about from one tree summit to another. 

 Closer inspection of the bird reveals the fact 

 that "black" is scarcely the right adjective to 

 apply to it. Dark grey is the prevailing hue 

 of its plumage, with some black on the head 

 and a quantity of brown on the wings and tail. 

 The Himalayan species has a black cheek 

 stripe, which the other forms lack; but it is 

 quite unnecessary to dilate upon these minute 

 difi^erences. I trust I have said sufficient to 

 enable any man, woman, or suffragette to 

 recognise a noisy black bulbul, and, as the 

 distribution of each species is well defined and 

 does not overlap that of the other species, the 

 fact that a bird is found in any particular place 

 at once settles the question of its species. 



The South Indian bird occurs only in Ceylon 

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