CBATEHOPODIDJE.

coloration go, the description of the eggs of Molpastes leacogenys
is equally applicable to those of the present species. It' any
distinction can be drawn, it is that, as a body, bold blotches of
rich red and pale purple are more commonly exhibited in the eggs
oŁ this species than in those of either of the preceding ones.

In length the eggs vary from 0-8 to 0*9, and in breadth from
0-85 to 0-V, but the average of twenty-seven eggs was 0'83 nearly,
by 0-63 barely.

289. Otocompsa fuscicaudata, Gould. The Southern lied-
wldsJeered Bulbul.

Otocompsa fuscicaudata, Gould, Hume, Eouyh Draft N. $ K no. 400
Hs.

The Southern Red-whiskered Bulbul is found throughout the
more hilly and more or less elevated tracts of the peninsula,
from Cape Oomorin northwards as far as Mount Aboo on the west,
and the Eastern Ghats, above Nellore, on the east. How far
northwards it extends in the centre of the peninsula I am not
certaiu, but I have seen a specimen from the Satpooras.

They breed any time from the beginning of February to the
end of May. Their nests are usually placed at no great height
from the ground (say at from 2 to 6 feet) in some thick bush.

The nests of this species that I procured at Mount Aboo, and
which have been sent me by Mr. Carter both from Coonoor and
Salem, and by other friends from other parts of the Nilgliiris,
where the bird is excessively common, very much resemble those
of 0. emeria, but they are somewhat neater and more substantial
in structure. They differ a good deal in size and shape, as the
nests of Bulbuls are wont to do. Some are rather broad and
shallow, with egg-cavities measuring 3|inches across, and perhaps
1 inch in depth; while others are deeper and more cup-shaped, the
cavity measuring only 2| inches across and fully 1^ inch in depth.
They are composed in some cases almost wholly of grass-roots, in
others of very fine twigs of the furash (Tamaria furas), in others
again of rather fine grass, and all have a quantity of dead leaves
or dry ferns worked into the bottom, and all are lined with either
very fine grass or very fine grass-roots. The external diameter
averages about 4| inches, but some stand fully 3 inches high,
while others are not above 2 inches in height. As might be
expected, the White-cheeked and White-eared and the two Eed-
whiskered Bulbuls' types of architecture differ considerably; inter
se, the nests of M. leucotis and M. leucogenys differ just sufficiently
to render it generally possible to separate them, and the same may
be said of the nests of 0. emeria and 0. fuscicaudata. But there
is a very wide difference between the nests of the two former and
the two latter species, so that it would be scarcely possible to
mistake a nest belonging to the one group for that of the other.
The incorporation of a quantity of dead leaves in the body of the
nests, reminding one much of those of the English Nightingale, is