"The eggs were laid on successive days. I think the birds had already had one brood (in another nest), for I saw apparently the same pair followed by a young one not long before."
Dr. Jerdon says:--"I found the nest in my garden at Nellore. It was rather loosely made with roots, grass, and hair, placed in a hedge, and the eggs, four in number, were reddish white, with darker lake-red spots, exceedingly like those of the Common Bulbul."
Colonel Legge, in his 'Birds of Ceylon,' tells us that this Bulbul breeds in the west and south-west of Ceylon from December to June, the months of April and May, however, appearing to be the favourite time. On the eastern side of the island it breeds during the north-east rains.
The eggs answer well enough to Dr. Jerdon's description, but to an oologist's eye they are excessively _un-like_ those of the Common Bulbul; shape, tone of colour, and character of markings alike differ.
In shape they are decidedly elongated ovals. The shell is very fine and smooth, and moderately glossy. The ground is reddish white, and this is profusely speckled and blotched (the blotches being chiefly confined, however, to a broad irregular zone round the broader end) with a deep but certainly, I should say, _not_ lake-red, but much nearer what one would get by mixing brown with vermilion. Besides these red markings sundry clouds and spots of a pale greyish lilac are intermingled in a zone, and one or two spots of the same colour may be traced elsewhere.
The eggs measure 0·92 by 0·62, and 0·97 by 0·63.
300. Pycnonotus blanfordi (Jerd.). _Blanford's Bulbul_.
Ixus blanfordi (_Jerd.), Hume, cat._ no. 452 quint.
Mr. Oates writes from Pegu:--"Nest in a small tree, well concealed by leaves, about 7 feet from the ground, near Pegu. A very neat cup measuring 3 inches diameter externally and 2·25 internally. The depth 1·75 inch outside and 1·25 inside. The sides of the nest, though very strongly woven, can be seen through. The materials consist of small fine branchlets of weeds, and the inside is neatly lined with grass. One or two dead leaves, or rather fragments, are used in the exterior walling.
"The nest was found on the 25th May, and contained three eggs slightly incubated. The ground-colour is a fresh pink, but with little gloss. The whole egg is covered with a profusion of dark purplish-red spots, more thickly disposed at the thick end, but everywhere frequent. In addition there are some underlying and much paler smears. The three eggs measured respectively ·75, ·78, and ·77 in length, by ·63, ·62, and ·61 in breadth.