-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.
Mr. Benjamin Aitken, writing from Bombay under date the 11th June,
says:--"I now send you a nest of _Pycnonotus luteolus_ with two eggs.
I took it this morning from, a thickly foliaged tree in a garden. It
was placed on the top of the main stem of the tree, which had been
abruptly cut off about 5 feet from
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