Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Birds Vol 1).djvu/407

Rh were already hard-set. The nests, which were taken in dense forest in amongst the heaviest undergrowth, were placed in low bushes on the banks of, or close to, forest streams. They were bulky cups of leaves, roots, twigs, moss etc. with a thick lining of bamboos, inside which again there was a true lining of roots both fine and coarse. The eggs, two in number in each case except once when there were three, are very beautiful. The ground-colour varies from a pale wine-coloured pink to the deepest salmon and the whole surface is more or less covered with blotches, smudges and a few spots and scrawls of deep bright red. The surface is intensely glossy, the shell hard and fine and in shape they are rather long ovals, generally well pointed at the smaller end. Nine eggs average 25.2 × 18.5 mm.

Habits. Similar to those of the better-known C t. flaveolus from the Sub-Himalayas. They are birds of dense evergreen forests at low levels, go about in small flocks in the non-breeding season and are very noisy birds. They keep much to the lower trees and undergrowth.

(380) Criniger tephrogenys flaveolus.

Vernacular names. Kussap-eechiop-pho (Lepcha); Dao-balip-gurrmo-didi (Cachari).

Description. Differs from the last in having the upper plumage more green, the edges of the feathers being distinctly olive-green; the lower surface is a bright yellow, the chin and upper throat alone being white; there is a white supercilium always present and sometimes quite conspicuous.

Colours of soft parts. Irides deep red; bill pale greyish blue, gape and mouth still paler; legs greyish-horny, pale bluish-horny or fleshy-grey.

Measurements. Total length about 210 to 220 mm.; wing 88 to 96 mm.; tail about 83 mm.; tarsus about 18 to 20 mm.; culmen 17 to 18 mm.

Distribution. The Sub-Himalayas from Garhwal and Nepal, where it is apparently very rare, to the East of Assam, North and South of the Brahmaputra, Manipur and Tippera.

Nidification. This fine Bulbul breeds in some numbers in all the ranges of hills south of Assam from 1,000 feet, or even lower, to above 5,000 feet. At first I took most of my nests at higher elevations but later, when I knew the bird's habits better, I found it extremely common below 2,000 feet and many nests were taken in the ever-wet, deep forests of the lower valleys. They were almost always placed near running water and a favourite