Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Birds Vol 1).djvu/425

Rh appears to be a late breeder, no eggs having been taken earlier than June except one by Mandelli in May.

Habits. The Striated Green Bulbul is a bird of high elevations only, not descending below 4,000 feet even in the cold weather. Jerdon says that it keeps much to the tops of high trees but in N. Cachar we found it frequenting smaller trees and scrub-jungle. Here it was restlessly moving about from one bush to another and when disturbed made its way into safety by short flights of a few yards at a time, although they are good flyers when really forced to take wing into the open, with a faster, more direct flight than most Bulbuls. Their principal note is "a loud, mellow whistle," as referred to by Jerdon but they are really rather silent birds on the whole. They consort in small flocks in the non-breeding season and eat fruits, seeds and insects.

The genus Molpastes comprises some Bulbuls which are amongst the most familiar of Indian and Burmese garden birds. They are very widely distributed and though there are but few species these are represented by very numerous geographical races.

In Molpastes the crest is thick and of considerable length, the feathers growing from every portion of the crown and nape. The nuchal hairs are extremely short and difficult to detect. The wing is blunt and the tail very slightly rounded. All the birds of this genus are remarkable for the bright colour of the under tail-coverts and are further to be recognized by the broad white tips to the tail-feathers.

One of the species or races hitherto recognized cannot be maintained. This is Molpastes magrathi (Whitehead, Bull. B. O. C., xxi, p. 48) which is only a rather common hybrid between M. h. intermedius and M. leucotis, partaking of the characters of these two birds in varying degree, some individuals showing more of the former and some more of the latter.

The question of the status of the Chinese birds chrysorrhoides is one of some doubt. Robinson and Kloss consider that there are two good species, chrysorrhoides and hæmorrhous, both containing one or more races. To me it seems that we have but one species, extending from Ceylon to China, for there is no real break in the continuity of gradation from the dark western forms