Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Birds Vol 1).djvu/448

402 season, whilst in the breeding season it keeps to heights between 4,000 and 7,000 feet. They collect in flocks of a dozen or more individuals in winter, feeding both on the higher trees and in the bushes and undergrowth. Their food consists of insects of all kinds, but largely small beetles, seeds and some soft fruits such as the various Fici. In the stomachs of some specimens killed in N. Cachar were numerous tiny fragments of quartz. In the breeding season they seem to desert the higher trees and to keep to the lower jungle. Their notes are those of the family but full, soft and sweet and easily distinguishable from those of their nearest relations. They fly well but are not very active or quick on their feet.

Genus TRACHYCOMUS Cabanis, 1851.

This genus is represented by a single species of large size, striated plumage and peculiar structure. It has no crest but the crown is covered with dense, bristly, decomposed feathers of a yellow colour. The tarsus is remarkably strong, with a few scutellations in front and sometimes quite smooth. The bill is short, being about half the length of the head, the rictal bristles are strong and the nuchal hairs short. The wing is comparatively short and rounded and the tail-feathers well graduated.

The peculiar structure of the feathers of the crown and its large size will suffice to separate this Bulbul from all others.

(417) Trachycomus ochrocephalus.

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Vernacular names. Burong-baran-baran (Malay).

Description. Forehead, crown, a patch under the eye, branching out into two streaks, one extending partially over the ear-coverts and one under, straw-yellow; ear-coverts brown with white shafts; lores and cheeks black, divided by a yellowish streak; upper plumage and lesser wing-coverts ashy-brown dashed with green, all the feathers, except those of the rump, with conspicuous