292. Spizixus canifrons, Blyth. The Finch-billed Bulbul.
Spizixus canifrons, Bl., Hume, cat. no. 453 bis.
Colonel Godwin-Austen says:—"Spizixus canifrons breeds in the neighbourhood of Shillong, in May. Young birds are seen in June."[A]
[Footnote A: TRACHYCOMUS OCHROCEPHALUS (Gm.). The Yellow-crowned
Bulbul.
Trachycomus ochrocephalus (Gm.), Hume, cat. no. 449 bis.
As this bird occurs in Tenasserim, the following description of the nest and eggs found a short distance outside our limits will prove interesting.
Mr. J. Darling, Junior, writes:—"I found the nest of this bird on the 2nd July at Kossoom. The nest was of the ordinary Bulbul type, but much larger, and like a very shallow saucer. The foundation was a single piece of some creeping orchid, 3 feet long, coiled round; then a lot of coils of fern, grass, and moss-roots. The nest was 4 inches in diameter on the inside, the walls 1/4 inch thick, and the cavity 1 inch deep. It was built 10 feet from the ground, in a bush in a very exposed position, and exactly where any ordinary Bulbul would have built."
The eggs of this species are of the ordinary Bulbul type, rather broad at the large end, compressed and slightly pyriform, or more or less pointed, towards the small end. The shell fine and smooth, but with only a moderate amount of gloss. The ground-colour varies from very pale pinky white to a rich warm salmon-pink. The markings are two colours: first, a red varying from a dull brownish to almost crimson; the second, a paler colour varying from neutral tint through purplish grey to a full though pale purple. The first may be called the primary markings; the others, which seem to be somewhat beneath the surface of the shell, the secondary ones. Varying as both do in different eggs, all the primary markings of any one egg are almost precisely the same shade; and the same is the case with the secondary ones, and there is always a distinct harmony between both these and the ground tint. As for the markings, they are generally much the most dense, in a more or less confluent mottled cap, round one end, generally the largest, and are usually more or less thinly set elsewhere. In some eggs all the markings are rather coarse and sparse, in others fine and more thickly set. Two eggs measured 1·06 by 0·76 and 1·03 by 0·73.]
295. Iole icterica (Strickl.). The Yellow-browed Bulbul.
Criniger ictericus, Strickl., Jerd. B. Ind. ii. p. 82; Hume. Rough
Draft N. & E. no 450.