Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Birds Vol 1).djvu/457

 PYCNOXOTLTS. 411

Nidification. The Yellow-vented Bulbul apparently breeds twice in the year, as a f^ood series of nests and eggs were obtained by Mr. W. A. T. Kellow round about Perak and Taipiug in February and early March and again in May. The nests are exactly like those of Otocompaa and are placed in bushes and small trees in scrub-jungle and thin forest. The eggs also are indis- tinguishable from those of that genus and are normally only two or three in number. They average (20 eggs) 22-4 x 15-9 mm. and the extremes are 23"6xl6-l mm.; 21'0 X 16'8 mm. The longest egg is also the most narrow and the shortest is also the broadest.

Habits. Davison describes this bird in Mergui, vs'here it is very abundant, as being just like Otocompsa in habits, food and the country it frequents. He says: — "I have repeatedly seen it on the ground hopping about. It feeds largely on insects, such as grasshoppers etc., but also on berries and fruit, and I have seen it clinging to mangoes and pecking away at the fruit. Its note is extremely like that of Otocompsa emerict, ' kick, kick, pettigrew,'' repeated several times. It is usually found singly or in pairs, though often half-a-dozen or more may be seen seated about the bushes near each other, but I do not think they act in concert or ever go in flocks; they are not shy."

{{c|{{larger|(426) Pycnonotus aurigaster xanthorrhous. }}

{{sc|ANnEiisoN's 'YelI;OW-ye>'ted Bulbul. }}


 * Pycnonotus xanthorrhous Anderson, P. A. S. B., 1869, p. 2(3-5 (Kakliyen Hills); Blanf. & Oates, i, p. 286, footnote.

Vernacular names. Kator-tor-prong (Kachin).

Description. Forehead, crown, lores, a ring rotnid the eye and a narrow cheek-stripe extending to the end of the ear-coverts, black; a small spot of deep red at the base of the lower mandible near the gape; ear-coverts glossv hair-brown, the feathers with obsolete pale margins; wings and tail darker brown, the former margined with the colour of the back, the latter narrowly tipped with white; sides of the neck brown, meeting in a crescentic band across the breast; abdomen and vent whitish; sides of body and thighs brown; under tail-coverts deep golden yellow; under side of shafts of tail-feathers white.

Colours of soft parts. Iris brown or brownish red; bill, legs and feet black.

Measurements. Total length about 200 mm.; wing about 85 to 93 mm.; tail about 95 mm.; tarsus about 23 mm.; culmen about 15 mm.

Distribution. The hills of Eastern Burma from Karenni to the Kachin (Ivakliyen) Hills, Shan States, Yunnan to China.

Nidification. Col. H. H. Harington writes (Journal B.N.H.S., xix, p. 121) :— " It always seems to build its nest, which is of the usual Bulbul type, within 2 or 3 feet of the ground, generally placing it in a bramble-bush amongst long grass and weeds, and