MOLPASTES. 177

six feet from the ground, and is placed either in a thick hush or in
the outer twigs of a low bough of a tree."

The eggs are of the regular Bulbul type, as exemplified in those
of Molpastes Tic&morrlious, and vary much in colour, size, and shape.
Typically they are rather a long oval, somewhat pointed at one end,
have a pinkish or reddish-white ground with little or no gloss, and
are thickly speckled, freckled, streaked, or blotched, as the case
may be, with blood-, brownish-, or purplish-red, &c., and here and
there, chiefly towards the large end, exhibit, besides these primary
markings, tiny underlying spots and clouds of pale inky purple.
Some eggs have a pretty well-marked zone or irregular cap at the
large end, but this is not very common. In size they average
somewhat larger than those of Molpastes leucotis and Otocompsa
emeria, both of which they closely resemble; but they are smaller
and as a body less richly coloured than those of 0. fuscicaudata.
They vary in length from. OS2 to 0*95, and from 0'58 to 0'7 in
breadth; but the average of fifty-seven specimens measured was
0-88 by 0-65.

285. Molpastes leucotis (G-ould). The White-eared Bulbul.

Otocompsa leucotis (Gottld), Jerd. B. Ind. ii. p. 91; Hume. Rough
Draft N. $ E. no. 459.

The "White-eared Bulbul is, so far as my experience goes,
entirely a Western Indian form. In the cold weather it may be
met with at Agra, Cawnpoor, and even Jhansi, Saugor, and
Hoshungabad; but during the summer months I only know of its
occurring in Cutch, Katywar, Sindh, Rajpootana, and the Punjab.
In all these localities it breeds, laying for the most part in July
and August in the Punjab, but somewhat earlier in Sindh. I have,
even in Eajpootana, seen eggs towards the end of May, but this
is the exception.

The nests are usually in dense and thorny bushes—acacias,
catechu, and jhand (Prosopis spicigera)—and are placed at heights
of from 4 to 6 feet from the ground. The Customs hedge is a
great place for their nests, but 1 have noticed that they are
partial to bushes in the immediate neighbourhood of water; and at
Hansie, whence he sent me many nests and eggs, Mr. W. Blewitt
always found them either in the fort ditch or along the banks of
the canal.

The nests, which very much resemble those of MolpasUs Jicemor-
rlious, are usually composed of very fine dry twigs of some her-
baceous plant, intermingled with vegetable fibre resembling tow,
and scantily lined with very fine grass-roots. They are rather
slender structures, shallow cups measuring internally from 2^ to
3 inches in diameter, and a little more than 1 inch in depth.
Three was the largest number of eggs I ever found in any nest,
and several sets were fully incubated.

Mr. W. Theobald makes the following note on the nidification
VOL. i. 12