300.  Pycnonotus davisoni (Hume). Davison’s Stripe-throated Bulbul.

Ixus davisoni, Hume; Hume, cat. no. 452 quat.

Mr. Oates writes from Kyeikpadein in Pegu:—­“A nest of this bird was found on the 1st June, and another on 6th of the same month, each containing two fresh eggs.  The females, which were shot off the nest, showed, however, no signs on dissection of being about to lay more.

“The nest is a flimsy structure, built of the stems of small weeds and lined with grass.  A few fine black tree-roots are twisted round the inside of the egg-chamber.  The outside and inside diameters measure 4 and 3 inches, and the depths are similarly 3 and 1.25.  Both nests were placed low down about 4 feet from the ground—­one in a bush, and the other in a creeper.

“The eggs vary much in size.  One pair measure .92 and .88 by .60 and .65, and the other .83 and .82 by .65 and .61 respectively; the ground-colour of all is a pinkish white.  In one pair the shell-blotches of washed-out purple are spread over the whole egg, and the surface-spots and clashes of carneous red are also equally spread over the whole shell.  In the other pair the shell-marks are grouped round the larger end to form a broad ring, and the whole egg is thickly speckled and spotted with bright reddish.  The eggs are very slightly glossy.”

301.  Pycnonotus melanicterus (Gm.)._The Black-capped Bulbul_.

Rubigula melanictera (Gm.), Hume, cat. no. 455 bis.

Colonel Legge writes:—­“In April 1873 I received from a friend in Ceylon three eggs of this bird; but I was unable to identify them until lately, when I had an opportunity of comparing them with a clutch taken last year in the Western Province, and about which there was no doubt.  In the latter case the nest was fixed on the top of a small stump, and was a loose structure of grass and bents; in shape rather a deep cup; and contained two eggs of a reddish-white ground-colour, profusely speckled with reddish brown (in one example confluent round the obtuse end, in the other distributed over the whole surface) over freckles of bluish grey.  Dimensions:  0.79 by 0.58, 0.78 by 0.57.  The other nest was made of grass on a foundation of dry leaves and herbaceous stalks, loosely lined with fine hair-like tendrils of creepers.  The eggs were of a reddish-white ground, thickly covered throughout with brownish-red and dusky red spots, becoming somewhat confluent round the obtuse end.  In form they are regular ovals, and measure 0.78 by 0.6, 0.79 by 0.58.”

305.  Pycnonotus luteolus (Less.). The White-browed Bulbul.

Ixos luteolus (Less.) Jerd.  B. Ind. ii, p. 84; Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 452.

Common as is the White-browed Bulbul in Midnapoor, throughout the Tributary Mehals, along the Eastern Ghats, and again, it appears, in Bombay, only two of my correspondents appear as yet to have procured the nest or eggs.