Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Birds Vol 1).djvu/449

Rh white shafts; the upper tail-coverts are margined with olive-green; greater coverts, wings and tail dark brown; the wing-quills edged with olive-green, the tail-feathers edged with greenish and tipped below with pale ochraceous; chin and throat white; breast and sides of the neck ashy-brown, with white shaft-streaks; sides of the body brown, with fainter shaft-streaks; abdomen and vent brownish white; thighs and under tail-coverts ochraceous; under wing-coverts and axillaries ochraceous brown.

Colours of soft parts. Legs and feet dark horny-brown or black; bill black; iris pale or litharge-red (Hume & Davison).

Measurements. Total length 265 to 275 mm.; wing 115 to 123 mm.; tail about 95 to 100 mm.; tarsus about 25 to 28 mm.; culmen about 18 to 19 mm.

Distribution. Peninsular Burma and Siam throughout the Malay Peninsula to Sumatra, Java and Borneo. This bird does not occur in Ceylon and its typical locality must therefore be restricted to Java (Stuart Baker, Journal B. N. H. S., xxvii, p. 470, 1921).

Nidification. Mr. J. Darling took the nest of this Bulbul at Kossum on the 2nd July. In appearance it was "of the ordinary Bulbul type but much bigger." It was made of fern, grass and moss roots and a long piece of a trailing orchid, about 3 feet long, wound round and round. It was placed in a high bush, 10 feet from the ground and in a very exposed position. The eggs, two in number, are much like those of Microscelis and measure about 26.0 × 18.5 mm.

Habits. This Bulbul is a bird of the plains, being found in open country and not in forest or heavy jungle. Davison records that it is found in small parties of four or five to eight or nine birds, "It is very garrulous and keeps up a continuous chatter but it also has a song which is particularly rich and powerful." In Mergui he found the Yellow-crowned Bulbul frequenting gardens. Its food consists of berries and insects and it may often be seen hopping about on the ground in search of the latter.

Genus IOLE Blyth, 1844.

The genus Iole is not marked by any very striking characteristic beyond the sharp carination of the upper mandible. In many respects it is intermediate between Hemixus and Pycnonotus but differs from both in the point above noted.

In Iole the feathers of the crown are slightly lengthened but they do not form a crest. The bill is about three-quarters the length of the head and when viewed laterally is of much the same shape as that of Hemixus (fig. 75, p. 375). The nuchal hairs are short. In Iole there are generally numerous hairs springing from the back but in Iole nicobariensis these hairs are very inconspicuous and on this account Blyth proposed the generic name Ixocincla for this species, and if it is retained the specific name would then be virescens Blyth. If, however, a careful examination