Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Birds Vol 1).djvu/451

Rh (419) Iole icterica.

.

Vernacular names. Huldi Bulbul (Mysore).

Description. Whole upper plumage bright olive-yellow; wings dark brown, the outer webs of the feathers olive-yellow and the inner edged with the same; tail-feathers olive-yellow, with brighter edges and the inner edges and shafts yellow below; a streak from the nostril to the eye and a circle round it, sides of the head and whole lower plumage and under wing-coverts bright yellow, washed with olive-green on the flanks.

Colours of soft parts. Iris wood-brown; legs and feet pale blue, claws bluish-horny; upper mandible brownish black, lower pale brown, darkest along the edges and tips (Davison); iris blood-red, dark red (Butler); iris blood-red (Jerdon).

Measurements. Total length about 200 mm.; wing 94 to 98 mm.; tail about 94 mm.; tarsus about 19 mm.; culmen about 15 mm.

Distribution. The West side of Southern India from about Mahabaleshwar to Cape Comorin and Ceylon.

Nidification. The Yellow-browed Bulbul breeds principally in February and March from Kanara to Travancore but eggs have been taken as late as 15th May (Davidson); in the Nilgiris and higher hills it breeds from April to the end of May or early June. In Ceylon it apparently breeds in July and August. The nest is like a small neat edition of those of Microscelis, a cradle in a horizontal fork or between two twigs, made of leaves, soft, pliant twigs and grasses, firmly wound round the supporting twigs and well plastered with cobwebs. The lining is of fine grasses only. The site selected is on a small sapling or high bush, 5 to 10 feet from the ground, which may be either in dense forest, thin scattered tree- or bush-jungle, or even in a small spinney or clump of bushes.

The eggs are nearly always two only and are very different from those of any other genus, except Kelaartia, approaching nearest to very bright pale eggs of Nanthixus and Spizixus. The ground is a very pale pink, almost white in many cases, and they are profusely speckled, more or less, all over with pale bright reddish- or pinkish-brown. In a few eggs the markings are most numerous at the large end, where they form an ill-defined cap or ring. Thirty eggs average 23.1 × 16.6 mm. and the extremes are: maxima 25.0 × 17.2 mm. and minima 21.3 × 16.3 and 22.0 × 15.5 mm.

Habits. This Bulbul is found at all heights from 2,000 to about 6,500 feet, frequenting forest, both light and dense, more open country and even sometimes venturing into gardens and orchards.