Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Birds Vol 1).djvu/442

398 Mahanadi, Eastern Bengal, hills and plains South of the Brahmaputra, Burma, Siam, Shan States, Yunnan. In Peninsular Siam and Burma it is replaced by the next form.

Nidification. This Yellow Bulbul makes a nest much like that of the two genera last described, but deeper and better built and nearly always made of tan-coloured materials amongst which dead leaves are always prominent. The lining is of fine grass-stems, occasionally of tine moss roots or similar material, whilst one nest was lined with mithna (Bos frontalis) hair. They breed most numerously in May and June but eggs are laid almost any time between early March and late August or even early September. The full clutch numbers two to four and the eggs differ from those of the other species of Otocompsa in being more profusely stippled and speckled all over with very fine markings varying in colour from reddish- or creamy-pink to deep purple-red or red- brown. 100 eggs average 22.3 × 16.5 mm. and vary in length between 24.2 × 16.4 and 20.5 × 16.8 mm. and in breadth between 21.9 × 17.2 and 23.1 × 15.3 mm.

Habits. In its actions, flight and food this bird is a true Otocompsa but it is often found in light scrub- and bamboo-jungle and sometimes on the outskirts of deep forest. In Assam it frequents the vicinity of the hill villages, cover of any kind in and around patches of cultivation and open places near roads and streams. It collects in the cold weather in flocks of half-a-dozen to a score or more individuals and frequents indifferently scrub, bushes, bamboos and high trees. They eat both insects and fruit and I have seen them on the ground eating wild strawberries and also feeding on termites as they came up from the ground. They are, for Bulbuls, not noisy birds and their song, which may he written "weet-tre-trippy-wit," with the last three syllables repeated twice or more, forms a rather sweet though jerky little song. They are found commonly up to 3,500 feet and rarely up to 5,000.

(414) Otocompsa flaviventris minor.

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Description. "Smaller than O. fl. flaviventris (Tickell) of Chota Nagpur; wing 83 mm. or less" (Kloss).

Distribution. Peninsular Burma and Siam and throughout the Malay Peninsula.

It is only after some hesitation that I have accepted this form. It certainly averages smaller, but the smallest Malay bird and the smallest bird from Assam both have a wing of 77 mm. On the other hand, Kloss's minor seems also to be a trifle darker and to have a decidedly shorter crest.

Nidification and Habits. Nothing recorded.