and stems of herbaceous plants, all of a uniform brown tint, are wound round and round, apparently to keep the leaves in their places interiorly, and then the cavity is lined with jet-black horsehair-like vegetable fibres.  What these are I do not know, but they are precisely like horsehair to look at, only they are comparatively brittle.  The contrast of colour between the jet-black lining and the rich brown of the lip of the saucer, which is constant in all the nests, is very striking.

The eggs of this species sent me by Mr. Mandelli, obtained by him in Sikhim at elevations of from 2000 to 4000 feet in July and the early part of August, possess a very distinctive character.  They are broad ovals, much pointed towards the small end, and they are more glossy than the eggs of any other of this family with which I am acquainted.  The ground-colour is pink.  The markings consist of curious hair-line scratches, clouded blotches, and irregular spots—­in some eggs all very hazy and ill-defined, in others more scratchy and sharp.  The great majority of the markings seem to be gathered together into an irregular and imperfect zone round the large end.  In colour the markings vary from a deep brownish maroon to a dull brickdust-red, sometimes they are slightly more purplish.  In some eggs a few faint clouds or small spots of subsurface-looking dusky purple may be noticed mingled with the rest of the markings.

These eggs are totally unlike the eggs of Criniger ictericus.  I have never had an opportunity of verifying the eggs myself, but as three different nests have now been taken, all containing precisely similar eggs, I believe there can be no doubt of their authenticity.

269.  Hypsipetes psaroides, Vigors. The Himalayan Black Bulbul.

Hypsipetes psaroides (Vig.), Jerd.  B. Ind ii, p. 77; Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 444.

The Himalayan Black Bulbul breeds throughout the outer and lower ranges of the Himalayas, at any rate from Bhootan to Afghanistan, at elevations varying from 2000 to 6000 feet.

They lay mostly in May and June, but eggs may occasionally be met with during the latter half of April.

The nest of Hypsipetes psaroides is usually made of rather coarse-bladed grass, with exteriorly a number of dry leaves, and more or less moss incorporated, and lined with very fine grass-stems and roots of moss.  A good deal of spider’s web is often used exteriorly to bind the nest together, or attach it more firmly to the fork in which it rests.  Its general shape is a moderately deep cup, the cavity measuring some 21/2 inches in diameter by 11/2 inch in depth.  The sides, into which leaves and moss are freely interwoven, vary from an inch to a couple of inches in thickness.  The bottom, loosely put together, is rarely more than from a quarter to half an inch in depth.  It appears to be generally placed on the fork of a branch, at a moderate height from the ground.