Dr. Scully states that in Nepal this Bulbul “breeds in May and June, principally at elevations of from 5000 to 6000 feet.  Its nests were secured on the 2nd, 5th, 6th, 14th, and 28th June; the usual number of eggs laid seems to be three.”

Colonel G.F.L.  Marshall writes:—­“This species breeds both at Naini Tal (7000 feet) and at Bheem Tal (4000 feet).  In Kumaon the eggs seem to be laid in the first half of June; the earliest date I have taken them was a single fresh egg on the 23rd May, and the latest, four eggs on the 25th Jane:  the nest is seldom more than six feet from the ground, and is placed either in a thick bush or in the outer twigs of a low bough of a tree.”

The eggs are of the regular Bulbul type, as exemplified in those of Molpastes haemorrhous, and vary much in colour, size, and shape.  Typically they are rather a long oval, somewhat pointed at one end, have a pinkish or reddish-white ground with little or no gloss, and are thickly speckled, freckled, streaked, or blotched, as the case may be, with blood-, brownish-, or purplish-red, &c., and here and there, chiefly towards the large end, exhibit, besides these primary markings, tiny underlying spots and clouds of pale inky purple.  Some eggs have a pretty well-marked zone or irregular cap at the large end, but this is not very common.  In size they average somewhat larger than those of Molpastes leucotis and Otocompsa emeria, both of which they closely resemble; but they are smaller and as a body less richly coloured than those of O. fuscicaudata.  They vary in length from 0.82 to 0.95, and from 0.58 to 0.7 in breadth; but the average of fifty-seven specimens measured was 0.88 by 0.65.

285.  Molpastes leucotis (Gould). The White-eared Bulbul.

Otocompsa leucotis (Gould), Jerd.  B. Ind. ii. p. 91; Hume.  Rough Draft N. & E. no. 459.

The White-eared Bulbul is, so far as my experience goes, entirely a Western Indian form.  In the cold weather it may be met with at Agra, Cawnpoor, and even Jhansi, Saugor, and Hoshungabad; but during the summer months I only know of its occurring in Cutch, Katywar, Sindh, Rajpootana, and the Punjab.  In all these localities it breeds, laying for the most part in July and August in the Punjab, but somewhat earlier in Sindh.  I have, even in Rajpootana, seen eggs towards the end of May, but this is the exception.

The nests are usually in dense and thorny bushes—­acacias, catechu, and jhand (Prosopis spicigera)—­and are placed at heights of from 4 to 6 feet from the ground.  The Customs hedge is a great place for their nests, but I have noticed that they are partial to bushes in the immediate neighbourhood of water; and at Hansie, whence he sent me many nests and eggs, Mr. W. Blewitt always found them either in the fort ditch or along the banks of the canal.