289. Otocompsa fuscicaudata, Gould. The Southern Red-whiskered Bulbul.
Otocompsa fuscicaudata, Gould, Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 400 bis.
The Southern Red-whiskered Bulbul is found throughout the more hilly and more or less elevated tracts of the peninsula, from Cape Comorin northwards as far as Mount Aboo on the west, and the Eastern Ghâts, above Nellore, on the east. How far northwards it extends in the centre of the peninsula I am not certain, but I have seen a specimen from the Satpooras.
They breed any time from the beginning of February to the end of May. Their nests are usually placed at no great height from the ground (say at from 2 to 6 feet) in some thick bush.
The nests of this species that I procured at Mount Aboo, and which have been sent me by Mr. Carter both from Coonoor and Salem, and by other friends from other parts of the Nilghiris, where the bird is excessively common, very much resemble those of O. emeria, but they are somewhat neater and more substantial in structure. They differ a good deal in size and shape, as the nests of Bulbuls are wont to do. Some are rather broad and shallow, with egg-cavities measuring 3¼ inches across, and perhaps 1 inch in depth; while others are deeper and more cup-shaped, the cavity measuring only 2½ inches across and fully 1½ inch in depth. They are composed in some cases almost wholly of grass-roots, in others of very fine twigs of the furash (Tamarix furas) in others again of rather fine grass, and all have a quantity of dead leaves or dry ferns worked into the bottom, and all are lined with either very fine grass or very fine grass-roots. The external diameter averages about 4½ inches, but some stand fully 3 inches high, while others are not above 2 inches in height. As might be expected, the White-cheeked and White-eared and the two Red-whiskered Bulbuls' types of architecture differ considerably; inter se, the nests of M. leucotis and M. leucogenys differ just sufficiently to render it generally possible to separate them, and the same may be said of the nests of O. emeria and O. fuscicaudata. But there is a very wide difference between the nests of the two former and the two latter species, so that it would be scarcely possible to mistake a nest belonging to the one group for that of the other. The incorporation of a quantity of dead leaves in the body of the nests, reminding one much, of those of the English Nightingale, is characteristic of the Red-whiskered Bulbul, and is scarcely to be met with in those of the White-cheeked or White-eared ones.
Mr. H.R.P. Carter says:—"At Coonoor on the Nilghiris I have found the nests from the 13th March to the 22nd April, but I believe they commence laying in February. They are generally placed in coffee-bushes and low shrubs, as a rule in a fork, but I have frequently found them suspended between the twigs of a bush which had no fork. I have also found the nest of this bird in the thatch of the eaves of a deserted bungalow, and in tufts of grass on the edge of a cutting overhanging the public road.
"The nest is cup-shaped, rather loosely constructed outside, but closely and neatly finished inside. The outside is nearly always fern-leaves at the bottom, coarse grass and fibres above, and lined inside either with fine fibres or fine grass.
"I have never found more than two eggs, and I have taken great numbers of nests; but I am told that three in a nest is not uncommon."
Writing from Kotagherry, Miss Cockburn says:—"Our Red-whiskered Bulbul builds a cup-shaped nest in any thick bush. The foundation is generally laid with pieces of dry leaves and fern, after which small sticks are added, and the whole neatly finished with a lining of fine grass. They lay two (sometimes three) very prettily spotted eggs of different shades of red and white, which are found in February, March, and April."
Mr. Wait remarks:—"This bird breeds at Coonoor from February to June. It builds usually in isolated bushes and shrubs, in gardens and open jungle. The nest is cup-shaped, loosely but strongly built of grass-bents, rooty fibres, and thin stalks, and is lined with finer grass-stems and roots. I think the internal diameter averages about 2½ inches, and about an inch in depth; but they vary a good deal in size. They lay two or three eggs, rarely four; and the eggs vary a good deal in shape and size, being sometimes very round and sometimes comparatively long ovals. The birds swarm on oar coffee estates, and breed freely in the coffee-bushes."