“The eggs, however, in both nests, three in each, closely resembled each other, being of a delicate pink ground, with reddish-brown and purplish-grey spots and blotches nearly equally distributed over the whole surface of the egg, the reddish brown in places becoming almost a maroon-red.  Two eggs, however, that we took out of a nest, similar to the first in structure but situated like the second in a mango-tree, were of a somewhat different character and very different in tint.  The ground was dingy reddish pink, and the whole of the egg was thickly mottled all over with very deep blood-red, the mottlings being so thick at the large end as to form an almost perfectly confluent cap.  Altogether the colouring of these two eggs reminded one of richly coloured types of Neophron’s eggs.  Some of the Bulbuls’ eggs that we have taken earlier in the season were much feebler coloured than any of those obtained to-day, and presented a very different appearance, with a pinkish-white ground, and only moderately thickly but very uniformly speckled all over with small spots of light purplish grey, light reddish brown, and very dark brown.  These eggs scarcely seem to belong to the same bird as the boldly blotched and richly-mottled specimens that we have taken to-day.”

Writing from the neighbourhood of Delhi, Mr. F.R.  Blewitt says:  “This Bulbul breeds from the middle of May to about the middle of August.  Its selection of a tree for its nest is arbitrary, as I have found the latter on almost every variety of bush and tree.  The nest is neatly cup-shaped, generally fragile in structure, though I have seen many a nest strong and compact.  The outer diameter of the nest varies from 3 to nearly 4 inches, and the inner diameter from 2 to almost 3 inches.

“The chief material of the nest is, on the outside, coarse grass, with fine khus or fine grass for the lining.  Very frequently horsehair is likewise used for lining the interior of the cavity.

“I have seen some nests bound round on the outside with hemp, other kinds of vegetable fibres, and even spider’s web.

“The regular number of the eggs is four.”

Mr. W. Theobald found the present species breeding in Monghyr in the fourth week of June.

Mr. Nunn remarks:—­“I took a nest of this species at Hoshungabad on 26th June, 1868, which contained four eggs; it was placed in a lime-tree, was composed of very small twigs, and lined inside with fine grass-roots; it was cup-shaped, and measured internally 2.25 inches in breadth by 1.75 in depth.”

The late Mr. A. Anderson wrote from Futtehgurh:—­“On the 30th April last (1874) I took a very beautifully and curiously constructed nest of our Common Bulbul.  In shape and size it resembled the ordinary nest, but the curious part of it was that the upper portion of the nest for an inch all round was composed entirely of green twigs of the neem tree on which it was built, and the under surface (below) was felted with fresh blossoms belonging to the same tree.  The green twigs had evidently been broken off by the birds, but the flowers were picked up from off the ground, where they were lying thick.”