rittle. The contrast of colour between the jet-black
lining and the rich brown of the lip of the saucer, which is constant
in all the nests, is very striking.

The eggs of this species sent me by Mr. Mandelli, obtained by him in
Sikhim at elevations of from 2000 to 4000 feet in July and the early
part of August, possess a very distinctive character. They are broad
ovals, much pointed towards the small end, and they are more glossy
than the eggs of any other of this family with which I am acquainted.
The ground-colour is pink. The markings consist of curious hair-line
scratches, clouded blotches, and irregular spots--in some eggs all
very hazy and ill-defined, in others more scratchy and sharp. The
great majority of the markings seem to be gathered together into
an irregular and imperfect zone round the large end. In colour the
markings vary from a deep brownish maroon to a dull brickdust-red,
sometimes they are slightly more purplish. In some eggs a few faint
clouds or small spots of subsurface-looking dusky purple may be
noticed mingled with the rest of the markings.

These eggs are totally unlike the eggs of _Criniger ictericus_. I have
never had an opportunity of verifying the eggs myself, but as three
different nests have now been taken, all containing precisely similar
eggs, I believe there can be no doubt of their authenticity.

269. Hypsipetes psaroides, Vigors. _The Himalayan Black Bulbul_.

Hypsipetes psaroides (_Vig.), Jerd. B. Ind_ ii, p. 77; _Hume, Rough
Draft N. & E._ no. 444.

The Himalayan Black Bulbul breeds throughout the outer and lower
ranges of the Himalayas, at any rate from Bhootan to Afghanistan, at
elevations varying from 2000 to 6000 feet.

They lay mostly in May and June, but eggs may occasionally be met with
during the latter half of April.

The nest of _Hypsipetes psaroides_ is usually made of rather
coarse-bladed grass, with exteriorly a number of dry leaves, and more
or less moss incorporated, and lined with very fine grass-stems and
roots of moss. A good deal of spider's web is often used exteriorly to
bind the nest together, or attach it more firmly to the fork in which
it rests. Its general shape is a moderately deep cup, the cavity
measuring some 21/2 inches in diameter by 11/2 inch in depth. The sides,
into which leaves and moss are freely interwoven, vary from an inch to
a couple of inches in thickness. The bottom, loosely put together, is
rarely more than from a quarter to