The eggs of this species are of the ordinary Bulbul type, rather broad at the large end, compressed and slightly pyriform, or more or less pointed, towards the small end.  The shell fine and smooth, but with only a moderate amount of gloss.  The ground-colour varies from very pale pinky white to a rich warm salmon-pink.  The markings are two colours:  first, a red varying from a dull brownish to almost crimson; the second, a paler colour varying from neutral tint through purplish grey to a full though pale purple.  The first may be called the primary markings; the others, which seem to be somewhat beneath the surface of the shell, the secondary ones.  Varying as both do in different eggs, all the primary markings of any one egg are almost precisely the same shade; and the same is the case with the secondary ones, and there is always a distinct harmony between both these and the ground tint.  As for the markings, they are generally much the most dense, in a more or less confluent mottled cap, round one end, generally the largest, and are usually more or less thinly set elsewhere.  In some eggs all the markings are rather coarse and sparse, in others fine and more thickly set.  Two eggs measured 1.06 by 0.76 and 1.03 by 0.73.]

295.  Iole icterica (Strickl.). The Yellow-browed Bulbul.

Criniger ictericus, Strickl., Jerd.  B. Ind. ii. p. 82; Hume.  Rough Draft N. & E. no 450.

The Yellow-browed Bulbul breeds apparently throughout the hilly regions of Ceylon and the southern portion of the Peninsula of India.  I have never taken the nests myself, and I have only detailed information of their nidification on the Nilghiris, which they ascend to an elevation of from 6000 to 6500 feet, and where they lay from March to May.

A nest of this species, taken by Mr. Wait near Coonoor on the 20th of March, is a small shallow cup hung between two twigs, measuring some 31/2 inches across and 3/4 inch in depth.  It is composed of excessively fine twigs and lined with still finer hair-like grass, is attached to the twigs by cobwebs, and has a few dead leaves attached by the same means to its lower surface.  It is a slight structure, nowhere I should think above 1/4 inch in thickness, and apparently carelessly put together:  but for all that, owing to the fineness of the materials used, it is a pretty firm and compact nest.  It is not easy to express it in words; but still this nest differs very considerably in appearance from the nests of any of the true Bulbuls with which I am acquainted, and more approaches those of Hypsipetes.

Mr. Wait sends me the following note:—­