DUSKY IXOS. 205 



differs in the colours of the plumage, is very like the 

 one we have figured under the name of Ixos vail- 

 lantii in the "PI. Color.," or the Merle cul-jaune du 

 Cap of Buffon, "PL Enl.," 317, which is the Brunoir 

 of Vaillant, "Ois. d'Afr.," pi. 108, f. 1. It resembles 

 also in all these characters many of the species of the 

 same genus scattered over the Isles of the Asiatic 

 Archipelago." 



I have much pleasure in giving here a figure of 

 the egg of Ixos obscurus, sent to me by the Rev. H. 

 B. Tristram, with that gentleman's remarks. This rare 

 egg is, I believe, now figured from an authentic 

 specimen for the first time. Mr. Tristram says, — "Egg 

 of Ixos obscurus. — Taken in a ravine near Lake Fetzara, 

 Eastern Algeria, 24th. June,, 1857, from a nest con- 

 taining three eggs hard set, in the centre of an 

 extremely thick piece of brushwood in the fork of a 

 low bush. Both the parent birds were shot. The 

 nest is very slight, small for the size of the bird, 

 formed outwardly of very fine twigs, and lined with 

 extremely fine fibres of roots. No hair or wool, or 

 other warm material used in its construction. It is 

 saucer-shaped and shallow. 



The voice of the bird is powerful and rich, some- 

 thing like the note of the Nightingale cut short, — the 

 first part of its song without the last. This is believed 

 to be the only nest of Ixos obscunis yet found, and 

 the egg bears a close affinity with that of the Ixos 

 (or Pycnonotus) hcemorrhceus , of Ceylon, in my collec- 

 tion, and with that of xanthopygius of Palestine. 

 The egg of the Gold-vented Thrush will doubtless 

 prove to be very similar. These eggs mark at once 

 the clear separation of the genus Ixos from the Twditice. 

 The whole family are among the richest songsters in 

 voi,. i. 2 F 



