Interbreeding of Allied Species 
Moreover, species which differ only in colour 
seem usually to interbreed in those parts where 
they meet. 
“This interbreeding,” writes Finn, on page 14 of 
Ornithological and Other Oddities, ‘occurs where 
the carrion crow (Corvus corone) meets the hooded 
crow (Corvus cornix), where the European and 
Himalayan goldfinches (Carduelis carduelis and 
C. cantceps) encounter each other, and where the 
blue rollers of India and Burma (Covaczas indicus 
and C. affinzs) come into contact, to say nothing 
of other cases.” 
Of these other cases, the Indian bulbuls of the 
genus Mo/fastes form a very remarkable one. 
In all places where two of the so-called species 
meet they appear to interbreed, and so freely do 
they interbreed that at the points where the allied 
species run into one another it is not possible to 
refer the bulbuls to either species. Thus William 
Jesse writes of the Madras Red-vented Bulbul 
(Molpastes hemorrhous) (page 487 of The Lois 
for July 1902): “This bird, although I have 
given it the above designation, is not the true 
M. hemorrhous. IJ have examined numbers of 
skins and taken nests and eggs time after time, 
and have come to the conclusion that our type is 
very constant, and at the same time differs from 
all the red-vented bulbuls hitherto described. 
The dimensions tally with those given by Oates 
for 14. hemorrhous, while the black of the crown 
255 
