164 CEATEEOPODID JB.

like vegetable fibres. What these are I do not know, but they
are precisely like horsehair to look at, only they are comparatively
brittle. The contrast of colour between the jet-black lining and
the rich brown of the lip of the saucer, which is constant in all
the nests, is very striking.

The eggs of this species sent ine by Mr. Mandelli, obtained by
him in Sikhim at elevations of from' 2000 to 4000 feet in July
and the early part of August, possess a very distinctive character.
They are broad ovals, much pointed towards the small end, and they
are more glossy than the eggs of any other of this family with
which I am acquainted. The ground-colour is pink. The mark-
ings consist of curious hair-line scratches, clouded blotches, and
irregular spots—in some eggs all very hazy and ill-defined, in others
more scratchy and sharp. The great majority of the markings
seem to be gathered together into an irregular and imperfect zone
round the large end. In colour the markings vary from a deep
brownish maroon to a dull brickdust-red, sometimes they are
slightly more purplish. In some eggs a few faint clouds or small
spots of subsurface-looking dusky purple may be noticed mingled
with the rest of the markings.

These eggs are totally unlike the eggs of Griniyer ictericus. I have
never had an opportunity of verifying the eggs myself, but as three
different nests have now been taken, all containing precisely similar
eggs, I believe there can be no doubt of their authenticity.

269. Hypsipetes psaroides, Vigors. The Himalayan Blade Bulbul.

Hypsipetes psaroides (F^.), Jerd. I>. Incl ii; p. 77; Hume, Rouyh
Draft N. # JS. no. 444.

The Himalayan Black Bulbul breeds throughout the outer and
lower ranges of the Himalayas, at any rate from Bhootan to
Afghanistan, at elevations varying from 2000 to 6000 feet.

They lay mostly in May and June, but eggs rnay occasionally
be met with during the latter half of April.

The nest of Hypsipetes psaroides is usually made of rather coarse-
bladed grass, with exteriorly a number of dry leaves, and more or
less moss incorporated, and lined with very fine grass-stems and
roots of moss. A good deal of spider's web is often used exteriorly
to bind the nest together, or attach it more firmly to the fork in
which it rests. Its general shape is a moderately deep cup, the
cavity measuring some 2| inches in diameter by 1| inch in depth.
The sides, into which leaves and moss are freely interwoven, vary
from an inch to a couple of inches in thickness. The bottom,
loosely put together, is rarely more than from a quarter to half an
inch in depth. It appears to be generally placed on the fork of a
branch, at a moderate height from the ground.

Eour is the normal number of eggs, but I have more than once
found three partially incubated eggs in a nest.

From Darjeeling Mr. G-ainmie remarks :—" A nest of this bird,
which I took on the 17th June, at a height of nearly 50 feet from