"This bird, although very common on the Nilghiris at elevations of
from 4000 to 5000 feet, is a very shy nester, and its nest, which is
not easily found, is, as far as my experience goes, invariably placed
in the top of young thin saplings at heights of from 6 to 10 feet from
the ground. The saplings chosen are almost always in thick cover near
the edge of dry water-courses. They generally lay during May, but I
have found nests in March. In shape the nest is a moderately deep
cup, nearly hemispherical, with an internal diameter of from 2·5 to 3
inches--a true Bulbul's nest, composed of grass and bents and lined
with finer grasses. The nest is always suspended by the outer rim
between two lateral branches, and never, I believe, built in a fork
as is so common in the case of many other Bulbuls. They lay only two
eggs, and never, I believe, more. The eggs are longish ovals, rather
pointed at one end, a dull white or reddish white, more or less
thickly speckled and spotted or clouded with pale yellowish or reddish
brown; occasionally the eggs exhibit a few very fine black lines."
Miss Cockburn, writing from Kotagherry, says:--"The Yellow-browed
Bulbul is common on the less elevated slopes of the Nilghiris, where
it is often seen feeding upon guavas, loquots, pears, peaches, &c.
They lay generally in April and May.
"Their nests are constructed very much like those of the common
Bulbuls, except that, instead of being placed in the forked branches
of trees, they are suspended between two twigs, and fastened to them
by cobwebs, the inside being neatly lined with fine grass. Two nests
of this bird were found, each containing two fresh eggs, of a pretty
pinkish salmon colour, with a dark ring at the thick end; but another
nest had three nearly _white_ eggs! The whole structure of the nests
was slight and thin, and the eggs could be plainly seen through. The
notes of the Yellow-browed Bulbul are loud and repeated often."
Writing on the birds of Ceylon, Colonel Legge remarks:--"I once found
the nest of this bird in the Pasdun-Korale forests in August; little
or nothing, however, is known of its breeding-habits in Ceylon, so
that it most likely commences earlier than that month to rear its
brood. My nest was placed in the fork of a thin sapling about 8 feet
from the ground. It was of large size for such a bird, the foundation
being bulky and composed of small twigs, moss, and dead leaves,
supporting a cup of about 2½ inches in diameter, which was constructed
of moss, lined with fine roots; the upper edge of the body of the nest
was woven round the supporting branches.... The bottom of the nest was
in the fork."
The eggs of this species sent to me by Mr. Wait from Coonoor
are totally unlike any other egg of this family with which I am
acquainted. They remind one more of the eggs of _Stoparola melanops_
or one of the _Niltavas_ than anything else. The eggs are moderately
long and rather perfect ovals, almost devoid of gloss, and with a dull
white or pinkish-white ground, speckled more or less thickly over the
whole surface with rather pale brownish red or pink. The specklings
becoming confluent at the large end, where they form a dull irregular
mottled cap. Other specimens received from Miss Cockburn from
Kotagherry exhibit the same general characters; but the majority of
them are considerably elongated eggs, approaching, so far as shape is
concerned, the _Hypsipetes_ type. In some eggs only the faintest trace
of pale pinkish mottling towards the large end is observable; in
others, the whole surface of the egg is thickly freckled and mottled
all over, but most densely at the large end, with salmon-pink or pale
pinkish brown.
In length the eggs vary from 0·9 to 1·03, and in breadth from 0·64 to
0·7.[A]
[Footnote A: PYCNONOTUS ANALIS (Horsf.). _The Yellow-vented Bulbul_.
Otocompsa analis (_Horsf._), _Hume, cat._ no. 452 sex.
Mr. J. Darling, Junior, writes:--"I found the nest of this Bulbul at
Salang in the Malay peninsula, on the 14th February. The nest was
built in a bush in secondary jungle, with a few trees scattered about.
It was in a fork 6 feet from the ground. The foundation was of dried
leaves, then fine twigs, and lined with fine grass-bents. There was a
good deal of cobweb in the construction. It was an exact facsimile of
many nests of _Otocompsa fuscicaudata_ from the Nilgherry Hills. The
egg-cavity was 3 inches in diameter and 2½ inches deep; the walls were
½ inch thick, the bottom 1 inch."
The eggs are of the usual variable Bulbul type, some broader and more
regular, some more elongated, some more or less pyriform. The shell as
in others, and apparently rarely showing any very perceptible gloss.
The ground-colour pinky white to a warm pink; the markings, specks,
and spots, or, when three or four of these latter have coalesced,
occasionally small blotches of a rich maroon-red intermixed with spots
and specks and clouds of pale purple. The markings always apparently
pretty thickly set everywhere, but almost invariably most densely in
a zone about the larger end, where they become at times more or less
confluent. Of course as in others of the genus, in some eggs all the
markings are very fine and speckly, while in others they are somewhat
bolder. In some the red greatly predominates; in others, again, the
grey underlying clouds are very widely extended, and form by far the
most conspicuous part of the markings, giving a grey tinge to the
entire egg. The eggs vary from 0·82 to 0·91 in length and from 0·61 to
0·65 in breadth.]
299. Pycnonotus finlaysoni, Strickl. _Finlayson's Stripe-throated
Bulbul_.
Ixus finlaysoni (_Strickl.), Hume, cat._ no. 452 ter.
Major C.T. Bingham says:--"On the 22nd May, 1877, while wandering
about collecting in the jungles below the Circuit-house at Maulmain, I
came across a neat, though thinly made, cup-shaped nest in the fork
of a tall sapling, some 12 feet above the ground. Coming closer, I
perceived it contained eggs, which were plainly visible through the
frail structure of the sides. On looking about to find the owner, I
saw a couple of _Pycnonotus finlaysoni_ flitting about uneasily in a
tree close at hand; so I hid myself a few yards off, and was almost
immediately rewarded by seeing one of them (it turned out to be
the female) fly down on to the nest, and seat herself on the eggs.
Approaching cautiously, I managed to shoot her as she slipped off;
but, on taking down the nest, I found I had fired too soon, as one of
the eggs (there were but two) was smashed by a pellet of shot. The
nest was rather a deep cup, and, notwithstanding its flimsy sides,
strongly made of grass-roots, lined with very fine black roots of
fern. The one unbroken egg was rather roundish in shape, of a dull
whitish and claret colour, mixed and spotted and clouded with deeper
vinous red, chiefly at the larger end."
Mr. J. Darling, Junior, found the nest of this Bulbul on more than one
occasion at Taroar in the Malay peninsula. He writes:--"I shot this
bird off a nest with two eggs on the 8th February; the nest was in a
bush 5 feet from the ground; the foundation was of leaves and fine
grass, lined with fine grass and a few cocoanut fibres. The nest was
3 inches in diameter and 2 inches deep. The eggs were too hard-set to
blow.
"On the 10th February I took another nest of _Pycnonotus finlaysoni_
at Taroar. The nest was built in a small shrub 3 feet from the ground,
in a fork; foundation of dead leaves, built of fine twigs and fibrous
bark; lined with fine grass-bents and moss-roots. Egg-cavity 2¾ inches
in diameter, 1¾ deep; walls ¼ inch thick, bottom ¾ inch.
"Found a nest of _Pycnonotus finlaysoni_, with two fresh eggs, on the
16th March. The nest was built in a thin small sapling, 5½ feet from
ground, on the top of a thinly wooded hill; the nest was of the
ordinary Bulbul type, but better put together and neater. The
foundation was of broad fibrous bark and twigs, lined with fine
grass-stalks."
The eggs vary in shape from broad ovals a good deal pointed towards
one end, to pyriform and elongated shaped, very obtuse even at the
small end. The shell is fine and compact, in some has a fine gloss,
in others it is rather dull. The ground-colour is a beautiful pink,
sometimes with a creamy tinge, and the markings are bold blotches,
spots, and streaks of a maroon of varying degrees in richness, and of
a subsurface-looking purple, varying to almost inky grey. In some eggs
the maroon, in some the purple or grey seems to predominate; in some
eggs the markings seem pretty equally distributed over the egg; in
others they form a more or less conspicuous zone about the larger end.
The eggs measure from 0·85 to 0·92 in length by 0·6 to 0·7 in breadth.