Mr. Wait remarks, writing from Coonoor:—­“Our Black Bulbul breeds from March to June.  It builds a cup-shaped nest neatly and firmly made.  Outside, the nest is chiefly composed, as a rule, of green moss, grass-stalks, and fibres, while inside it is lined with fine stalks and hair.  The cavity is from 2.5 to 3 inches in diameter and about half that depth.  Two is certainly the normal number of eggs; indeed, I have never found more.”

Mr. Rhodes W. Morgan, writing from South India, says in ’The Ibis’:—­“It breeds in lofty trees in the Nilghiris, building a shallow cup-shaped nest, from 20 to 60 feet from the ground.  The nest is constructed of the dried stems of the wild forget-me-not, and lined with a moss much resembling black horsehair.  The eggs, which are two in number, are pretty thickly spotted with pale lilac and claret on a light pink ground-colour.  I found these birds migrating in vast flights, numbering several thousands, in the Bolumputty valley in July.  They were flying westwards towards Malabar.”

Mr. Darling, Junior, writes:—­“I have taken the eggs of this Black Bulbul every year from 1863 to 1870 during March, April, May, and part of June, all over the Nilghiris.  The nests were all made of moss, dry leaves, and roots, lined with roots and fibres.  I have only once found three eggs (the normal number being two):  in this case the eggs are very much smaller than usual, and more blotched with the reddish spots.  I have found them at all heights from the ground up to 30 feet, and mostly in rhododendron trees.  I found two nests in S. Wynaad, at an elevation of about 4000 feet, both with young, in June 1873.”

Mr. C.J.W.  Taylor informs us that he procured the nest of this bird with three fresh eggs at Manzeerabad in Mysore on the 7th April.

Colonel Legge tells us that this Bulbul breeds in Ceylon from January till March.

That the Nilghiris bird should lay usually only two eggs, and this seems a well ascertained fact, while our very closely allied Himalayan form lays, as I can personally certify, regularly four, is certainly very strange.

The eggs of this species, sent me from the Nilghiris by Messrs. Carter and Davison, very closely resemble those of H. psaroides from the Himalayas.  The eggs are of course of the Bulbul type, but in form are typically much more elongated and conical than the true Bulbuls.  The ground-colour varies from white to a delicate pink.  The markings consist of different shades of deep red and pale washed-out purple.  In some the markings are bold, large, and blotchy, in others minute and speckly; and in both forms there is a tendency to confluence towards the large end, where there is commonly a more or less perfect, but irregular, zone.  The eggs though smooth and satiny have commonly little or no gloss, and, considering their size, are very delicate and fragile.

In length they vary from 1.0 to 1.17, and in breadth from 0.7 to 0.8.