purple are exhibited, often only perceptible when the egg is
closely examined, sometimes so numerous as to give the ground-colour
of the egg a universal purple tint. In about half the eggs there is
a tendency to exhibit, more or less, an irregular zone or cap at the
large end, but solitary eggs occur in which there is a cap at the
small end. Three pretty well marked types may be separately described.
First, an egg thickly mottled and streaked all over with deep
blood-red, which is entirely confluent over one third of the surface,
namely at the large end, and leaves less than a third of the
ground-colour visible as a paler mottling over the rest of the
surface. Then there is another type with a very delicate pure pink
ground, and with a few large, bold, deep red blotches, chiefly at
the large end, where they are intermingled with a few small pale
inky-purple clouds, and with only a few spots and specks of the former
colour scattered over the rest of the surface. Lastly, there is a pale
dingy pink ground, speckled almost uniformly, but only moderately
thickly, over the whole surface, with minute specks and spots of
blood-red and pale inky purple.

The dimensions are excessively variable. In length the eggs vary from
0.7 to 1.02, and in breadth from 0.6 to 0.75, but the average of sixty
eggs measured was 0.89 by 0.65.

279. Molpastes burmanicus (Sharpe). _The Burmese Red-vented Bulbul._

The Burmese Red-vented Bulbul occurs from Manipur down to Rangoon.
Writing from Upper Pegu, Mr. Oates says:--"On the 29th July I found a
nest in the extremity of a bamboo-frond forming one of a large clump
near my house at Boulay. It was circular, the internal diameter about
2.5 and the external 4 inches; the depth inside 1.5, and the total
height 2.5. Foundation of dead leaves, the bulk of the nest coarse
grass and small roots, and the interior of much finer grass carefully
curved to shape. Altogether the nest was a very pretty structure. Two
eggs measured 0.9 by 0.62 and 0.65. Another nest found at the same
time was placed in a small shrub about 4 feet from the ground. It was
very similar in construction and size to the above and contained three
eggs."

Subsequently writing from Lower Pegu, he says:--"Breeds abundantly
from May to September, and has no particular preference for any one
month."

281. Molpastes atricapillus (Vieill.). _The Chinese Red-vented
Bulbul_.

Molpastes atricapillus (_V.), Hume, cat._ no. 462 ter.

Mr