gst the foliage of a
kind of prickly bamboo growing out of the crevices of a patch of large
stones near Lebong (elevation 5000 feet), and contained two eggs
nearly ready to hatch. The nest is a shallow cup, about 3.75 inches in
diameter and 1.5 in height externally, composed entirely of fine brown
fibrous roots, a little bound together outside with wool and the silk
of cocoons and with two or three little bits of moss stuck about it,
and sparingly lined with hair-like grass. It is altogether a light
brown nest, no dark material being used in it at all. The cavity is
2.75 inches in diameter and about 1 deep.

278. Molpastes haemorrhous (Gm.). _The Madras Red-vented Bulbul_.

Pycnonotus haemorrhous (_Gm._), _Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 94.
Molpastes pusillus (_Bl._), _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._
no. 462.

The Madras Red-vented Bulbul, which by the way extends northwards
throughout the Central Provinces, Chota-Nagpoor, Rajpootana (the
eastern portions), the plains of the North-Western Provinces, Oudh,
Behar, and Western Bengal, breeds in the plains country chiefly in
June and July, although a few eggs _may_ also be found in April, May,
and August. In the Nilghiris the breeding-season is from February to
April, both months included.

Elsewhere I have recorded the following notes on the nidification of
this species in the neighbourhood of Bareilly:--

"Close to the tank is a thick clump of sal-trees (_Shorea robusta_),
the great building-timber of Northern India, whose natural home is in
that vast sub-Himalayan belt of forest which passes only 30 miles to
the north of Bareilly.

"In one of these a Common Madras Bulbul had made its home. The nest
was compact and rather massive, built in a fork, on and round a small
twig. Externally it was composed of the stems (with the leaves
and flowers still on them) of a tiny groundsel-like (_Senecio_)
asteraceous plant, amongst which were mingled a number of quite dead
and skeleton leaves and a few blades of dry grass: inside, rather
coarse grass was tightly woven into a lining for the cavity, which was
deep, being about 2 inches in depth by 3 inches in diameter.

"This is the common type of nest; but half an hour later, and scarcely
100 yards further on, we took another nest of this same species. This
one was built in a mango-tree, towards the extremity of one of the
branches, where it divided into four upright twigs, between which the
Bulbul had firmly planted his dwelling. Exter