AVIS-IBIS

Birds of Indian Subcontinent

404. Molpastes cafer Intermedius

(404) Molpastes cafer intermedius (Jerdon).
THE PUNJAB RED-VENTED BULBUL.
Molpastes hoemorrhous intermedius, Fauna B. I., Birds, 2nd ed. vol. i, p. 389.
Molpastes cafer intermedius, ibid. vol. viii, p. 613.
The Punjab race of Red-vented Bulbul is found in the lower ranges of the Himalayas from the extreme North-West to the Simla States and Garhwal Hills ; Kashmir and hills of the Punjab to Western Nepal. In Kashmir Ward records their occurrence in Jammu and Poonch ; in the Simla States Jones says that they are common in the valleys up to 5,000 feet, but Dodsworth found them breeding about 1,000 feet higher still. It is common and breeds freely in the Salt Range.
This Bulbul is entirely a bird of civilization and haunts gardens, parks, road-side bushes and hedges, open land and scrub round houses and villages, or bushes and trees in cultivated land. It is very numerous in all towns with large gardens. Whymper used to have four or five pairs breeding yearly in his garden in Naini Tal, at about 5,000 feet, nesting in the shrubs and bushes.
Marshall, Rattray and many others found it breeding near Murree in the lower hills up to about 4,000 feet or higher.
Hutton writes that its “nest is small and cup-shaped, composed of fine roots, dried grasses, flower-stalks, chiefly of forget-me-not, and a few dead leaves occasionally interwoven ; in some the outside is also smeared over here and there with cobwebs and silky reed down ; the lining is usually of very fine roots.”
In fact the nest of this Bulbul is much the sand as those of the other members of the genus, and probably varies in construction to much the same content. It is generally placed low down in thick bushes.
The breeding season is chiefly in May and June but a few birds breed in April and Jones took a nest in Keonthal on the 1st July.
The eggs number three or four, the latter number more often than the former. They are just like other Molpastes eggs and require no separate description, but on the whole are rather poorly marked, very handsome eggs being quite exceptional. The most common type is the one with an almost white ground, speckled rather profusely over the whole surface with purple-red or deep red-brown freckles.
One hundred eggs average 22.5 x 16.6 mm. : maxima 26.2 x 18.0 mm. ; minima 19.6 x 15.2. mm.

BookTitle: 
The Nidification Of Birds Of The Indian Empire
Reference: 
Baker, Edward Charles Stuart. The nidification of birds of the Indian Empire. Vol. 1. 1932.
Title in Book: 
404. Molpastes cafer Intermedius
Spp Author: 
Intermediusjerdon.
Book Author: 
Edward Charles Stuart Baker
CatNo: 
404
Year: 
1932
Page No: 
363
Common name: 
Punjab Red Vented Bulbul
M_ID: 
21963
M_SN: 
Pycnonotus cafer intermedius
Volume: 
Vol. 1
Term name: 
id: 
13587

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Scratchpads developed and conceived by (alphabetical): Ed Baker, Katherine Bouton Alice Heaton Dimitris Koureas, Laurence Livermore, Dave Roberts, Simon Rycroft, Ben Scott, Vince Smith