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 sâl-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. Externally it was as usual chiefly composed of the withered stems of the little asteraceous plant, interwoven with a few jhow-shoots (Tamarix dioica) and a little tow-like fibre of the putsan (Hibiscus cannabinus), while a good deal of cobweb was applied externally here and there. The interior was lined with excessively fine stems of some herbaceous exogenous plant, and there did not appear to be a single dead leaf or a single particle of grass in the whole nest.
"The eggs, however, in both nests, three in each, closely resembled each other, being of a delicate pink ground, with reddish-brown and purplish-grey spots and blotches nearly equally distributed over the whole surface of the egg, the reddish brown in places becoming almost a maroon-red. Two eggs, however, that we took out of a nest, similar to the first in structure but situated like the second in a mango-tree, were of a somewhat different character and very different in tint. The ground was dingy reddish pink, and the whole of the egg was thickly mottled all over with very deep blood-red, the mottlings being so thick at the large end as to form an almost perfectly confluent cap. Altogether the colouring of these two eggs reminded one of richly coloured types of Neophron's eggs. Some of the Bulbuls' eggs that we have taken earlier in the season were much feebler coloured than any of those obtained to-day, and presented a very different appearance, with a pinkish-white ground, and only moderately thickly but very uniformly speckled all over with small spots of light purplish grey, light reddish brown, and very dark brown. These eggs scarcely seem to belong to the same bird as the boldly blotched and richly-mottled specimens that we have taken to-day."
Writing from the neighbourhood of Delhi, Mr. F.R. Blewitt says: "This Bulbul breeds from the middle of May to about the middle of August. Its selection of a tree for its nest is arbitrary, as I have found the latter on almost every variety of bush and tree. The nest is neatly cup-shaped, generally fragile in structure, though I have seen many a nest strong and compact. The outer diameter of the nest varies from 3 to nearly 4 inches, and the inner diameter from 2 to almost 3 inches.
"The chief material of the nest is, on the outside, coarse grass, with fine khus or fine grass for the lining. Very frequently horsehair is likewise used for lining the interior of the cavity.
"I have seen some nests bound round on the outside with hemp, other kinds of vegetable fibres, and even spider's web.