Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Birds Vol 1).djvu/465

 PYCNOJfOTUS. 419


 * Pycnonotus plumosus Blvtli, J. A. S. B., xiv, p. o67 (1845) (Singapore); Blanf. & Oates,' i, p. 292.

Vernacular names. None recorded.

Description. Forehead and crown dark greyish brown, each feather margined with olive-green; wings and tail darlv brown, the outer webs of the feathers washed with bright ohve-green; lores dark brown; cheeks and chin dull whity-brown; ear-coverts dark brown with silvery-white shafts; lower plumage ashy- brown, slightly mottled and streaked with dull ochraeeous : under wing- and tail-coverts and edge of wing brighter ochra- eeous.

Colours of soft parts. Iris burnt sienna-brown to dark cinnabar- red; bill almost black; legs and feet reddisb brown, darker ii) sojne, paler in others {Hume).

Measurements. Length about I'JO to 200 mm. : wing 7S to 89 mm.; tail about 84 mm.; tarsus about 19 to 20 mm.; culuien about 15 to 16 mm.

Distribution. It is extremely difllcult to define the boundaries between this bird and the next, P. j^. robinsoni. It appears that the present bird is found in the South of the Malay Peninsula in Johore, Pahang, Perak, Keda and thence up the West coast of Teuasseriui as farXorth as Tenasserim Town and also in Sumatra and Borneo, whilst liobinson's Bulbul works North from Pataui up the East coast.

Nidification. Nests taken by Davison, Kellow and Waterstradt were of the ordinary Bulbul type built low down in bushes generally in thin forest, sometimes in fairly dense forest but not, apparently, in cultivated and A'iliage areas. The eggs are two or three in number, most often the former, and one clutch in the Waterstradt collection was a live, but this must be quite exceptional. The eggs are like those of the rest of the geuus and it is doubtful if any of tliese can be distinguished from one another except, perhaps, by size. Ten eggs average about 22-0xl7'7 mm. but Davison's eggs seeui to be abnormally big. Six of my own only measure 21 -8 x 161 mm. This species breeds in February, March and April.

Habits. This Bulbul is a bird of forests rather than of open country and Mr. Kellow informed me that he took the nests in almost impenetrable cane-brakes along streams in virgin forest. They are quite unobtrusive birds, keeping to the lower trees and bushes and having a chirping chatter, according to Davison, like that of Cfiniyer. They feed chiefly on berries. 2 K 2