Ixos luteolus (_Less.) Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 84; _Hume, Rough Draft N.
& E._ no. 452.
Common as is the White-browed Bulbul in Midnapoor, throughout the
Tributary Mehals, along the Eastern Ghâts, and again, it appears, in
Bombay, only two of my correspondents appear as yet to have procured
the nest or eggs.
Mr. Benjamin Aitken, writing from Bombay under date the 11th June,
says:--"I now send you a nest of _Pycnonotus luteolus_ with two eggs.
I took it this morning from, a thickly foliaged tree in a garden. It
was placed on the top of the main stem of the tree, which had been
abruptly cut off about 5 feet from the ground, where the stem was
about 3 inches thick. The nest was begun this day week, Thursday, and
the first egg was laid the day before yesterday (Tuesday). The bird is
a very common one in gardens in Bombay, though I never saw it in Berar
nor even in Poona. They build in situations similar to, but perhaps
rather more sheltered than, those chosen by the Common Bulbul; but I
remember finding one nest placed at a height of only 2 feet from the
ground.
"This present nest was begun, as already mentioned, last Thursday,
just two days after the first severe thunder-shower preliminary to the
monsoon, now fairly on us.
"I draw your attention to the manner in which the nest has been tied
at _one_ place to a twig to prevent its being blown off its very
(apparently) insecure site. I was obliged to take the nest, as I was
leaving at once, otherwise one or perhaps two more eggs would have
been laid."
The nest is a rather loose straggling structure, exteriorly composed
of fine twigs. The cavity, hemispherical in shape, is carefully lined
with fine grass-stems. Outside it is very irregularly shaped, and many
of the twigs used are much too long and hang down several inches from
the nest; but on one side the outer framework has been firmly tied
with wool and a little cobweb to a live twig to which the leaves, now
withered, are still attached. No roots or hair have entered into the
composition of this nest.
Mr. E. Aitken writes:--"I once found a nest in Bombay, not many feet
above the level of the sea of course.
"The first egg was laid on 14th September. The nest was built in a
bush on the edge of an inundated field, but in our garden. It was
fixed to a thin waving branch underneath the bush, which completely
overshadowed it. It was only 2 feet from the ground, a cup just large
enough to hold the body of the bird, whose head and tail always
projected over the edge; and it was made of thin twigs and neatly
lined with _coir_. The bird laid two eggs and then deserted the nest.
One of these, which I took, was thicker and rounder than a Bulbul's,
and thickly spotted with claret-coloured spots, which gathered into a
ring at the larger end.
"The eggs were laid on successive days. I think the birds had already
had one brood (in another nest), for I saw apparently the same pair
followed by a young one not long before."
Dr. Jerdon says:--"I found the nest in my garden at Nellore. It was
rather loosely made with roots, grass, and hair, placed in a hedge,
and the eggs, four in number, were reddish white, with darker lake-red
spots, exceedingly like those of the Common Bulbul."
Colonel Legge, in his 'Birds of Ceylon,' tells us that this Bulbul
breeds in the west and south-west of Ceylon from December to June, the
months of April and May, however, appearing to be the favourite time.
On the eastern side of the island it breeds during the north-east
rains.
The eggs answer well enough to Dr. Jerdon's description, but to an
oologist's eye they are excessively _un-like_ those of the Common
Bulbul; shape, tone of colour, and character of markings alike differ.
In shape they are decidedly elongated ovals. The shell is very fine
and smooth, and moderately glossy. The ground is reddish white, and
this is profusely speckled and blotched (the blotches being chiefly
confined, however, to a broad irregular zone round the broader end)
with a deep but certainly, I should say, _not_ lake-red, but much
nearer what one would get by mixing brown with vermilion. Besides
these red markings sundry clouds and spots of a pale greyish lilac are
intermingled in a zone, and one or two spots of the same colour may be
traced elsewhere.
The eggs measure 0·92 by 0·62, and 0·97 by 0·63.