HYPSIPETES. 167

spots of pale purple, which appear as if beneath the surface of
the shell. In all the eggs the markings are far more numerous at
the large end, where in one they form a huge confluent maroon-
coloured patch, mottled lighter and darker.

An egg recently obtained in Cashmere on the 20th June was
a somewhat elongated oval, more or less compressed towards
one end ; a delicate glossy white ground with a faint pink tinge;
a rich zone of reddish-purple spots and specks round the large end;
a few similar markings scattered sparingly over the rest of the
surface of the egg, and a multitude of very faint streaks and clouds
of very paZtf inky purple underlying the primary markings.

In length the eggs vary from 0-9 to 1*15, and in breadth from 0-7
to 0*78; but the average of twenty-five eggs measured is 1-03 by 0*75.

271. Hypsipetes ganeesa, Sykes. The fiwithern-Indian
Blade Bullul.

Hypsipetes neilgheniensis, Jerd.; Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 78 j Hume,

Rough Draft N. $ E. no. 445.
Hypsipetes ganeesa, Sykes, Jerd. t. c. p. 78.

Mr. Davis on tells me that " this species breeds from April to
about the middle of June. The nest is generally placed from 12
to 20 feet from the ground, in some dense clump of leaves; favourite
sites are the bunches of parasitic plants with which nearly every
acacia, and in fact nearly every other tree about Ootacanmnd, is
covered. The nest is composed exteriorly of moss, dry leaves, and
roots, lined with roots and fibres: the normal number of eggs is
two; they are white with claret-coloured and purplish spots."

A nest of this species taken at Coonoor on the 14th March, 1869,
by Mr. Carter, to whom I owe this and many other nests from the
Mlghiris, reminds one much of those of the Eed-cheeked Eulbuls.
A wisp of dry grass and dead leaves, with the dead leaves greatly
predominating exteriorly, twisted into a shallow cup, some 4^ inches
in diameter externally, and with a shallow depression tolerably
neatly lined with finer grass-stems measuring some 3 inches across
and perhaps an inch in depth. The bottom of the nest is almost
exclusively composed of dead leaves ; while even in the sides,
externally, little but these are visible, only a few grass-stems
crossing in and out, here and there, sufficiently to keep the leaves
in their places.

Mr. Wait remarks, writing from Coonoor :—" Our Black Bulbul
breeds from March to June. It builds a cup-shaped nest neatly
and firmly made. Outside, the nest is chiefly composed, as a rule,
of green moss, grass-stalks, and fibres, while inside it is lined with
fine stalks and hair. The cavity is from 2-5 to 3 inches in diameter
and about half that depth. Two is certainly the normal number
of eggs ; indeed, I have never found more."

Mr. Ehodes "W. Morgan, writing from South India, says in ' The
Ibis':—"It breeds in lofty trees in the JSilghiris, building a
shallow cup-shaped nest, from 20 to 60 feet from the ground. The
nest is constructed of the dried stems of the wild forget-me-not,