Bulbul

“ When pitted against an antagonist, such is the obstinate courage of this little creature that it will sink from exhaustion rather than release its hold. This propensity, and the ordinary character of its notes, render it impossible that the Bulbul of India could be identical with the Bulbul of Iran, the "Bird of a Thousand Songs,"2513 of which, poets say that its delicate passion for the rose gives a plaintive character to its note. ”

“ The word bulbul is originally Persian (no doubt intended to imitate the bird's note) , and applied to a bird which does duty with Persian poets for the nightingale. Whatever the Persian bulbul may be correctly, the application of the name to certain species in India "has led to many misconceptions about their powers of voice and song," says Jerdon. These species belong to the family Brachipodidae, or short-legged thrushes, and the true bulbuls to the sub-family Pycnonotinae, e.g. ”

“ Unable to obtain one alive, we startled the solitude of the wilderness with a gun-shot, and secured the body of a brown-breasted, scarlet-headed and crimson-winged bird, the eastern bulbul. The Arabs call a pretty bird a bulbul, but Sherîf , who was with me in the boat, insisted upon it that it was the specific name of the bird we had killed. ”

“ Crows in particular are addicted to young bulbuls, and take full advantage of the simplicity of the parent birds. Probably, three out of four broods never reach maturity. But the bulbul is a philosophic little bird. It never cries over broken eggs. If one clutch is destroyed it lays another. ”

“ I trust I have said sufficient to enable any man, woman, or suffragette to recognise a noisy black bulbul, and, as the distribution of each species is well defined and does not overlap that of the other species, the fact that a bird is found in any particular place at once settles the question of its species. The South Indian bird occurs only in Ceylon and the hills of South-west India; hence Jerdon called this species the Nilgiri or Ghaut black bulbul. Men of science in their wisdom have given the Himalayan bird the sibilant name of Hypsipetes psaroides. ”

“ The breast is, in its turn, separated from the greyish abdomen by a broad black band, which ornithologists term a collaret. Sometimes the collaret is interrupted in the middle. The hill-bulbul is a most vivacious bird. From dawn to sunset it is an example of perpetual motion. Its vocal cords are as active as its wings. The tinkling sounds of this bulbul form the dominant notes of the bird chorus. Husband and wife almost always move about in company. ”

“ We must, therefore, be careful to distinguish between the true bulbuls, which are not very brilliant singers, and the nightingale, which in India is known as the bulbul bostha, or bulbul basta. Numbers of Persian nightingales are captured and sent in cages to India, where they are highly prized on account of their vocal powers. A good singing cock will fetch as much as Rs. 400 in Calcutta. The cock nightingale alone sings, and as he is indistinguishable in appearance from the hen, a would-be purchaser, before paying a long price for one of these birds, should insist on hearing it sing. ”

“ Jean Malin began to cry. “I did not want to tell you,” said he, “but if I must I must. Dear Mistress, Mr. Bulbul is not a man at all, but that bull that you sometimes see over in the pasture. He uses magic to make himself look like a man so as to come to see you, 28 and then he goes right out and becomes a bull again and eats grass.” ”

“ The common bulbul of Burma.
17. Molpastes bengalensis: The Bengal Red-vented Bulbul. (F. 282) , (J. 461) , (II.)
The common bulbul of Eastern Oudh, the Bengals, and Assam. (Illus. B. C., p. 22.)
18. Molpastes intermedius: The Punjab Red-vented Bulbul. (F. 283) , (J. II., p. 95) (II.)
The common bulbul of the Frontier Province, the Punjab, and the province of Agra.
[At the points where the various species or races of red-vented bulbuls meet they interbreed, so that at Lucknow and other points of junction it is not possible to assign the local bulbuls to any of the above species.] ”

“ The third nest was situated in a bush outside the drawing-room window of the house in which I spent a month’s leave at Coonoor. This little nursery was so well concealed that I expected the parents would succeed in rearing their young. But one morning I saw on the gravel path near the nest a number of tell-tale feathers. Puss had eaten mamma bulbul for breakfast! The fourth nest—but why should I detail these tragedies? Notwithstanding all their nesting disasters, bulbuls flourish so greatly as to [234] severely shake one’s faith in the doctrine of natural selection. ”

“ The White-eared Bulbul is, so far as my experience goes, entirely a Western Indian form. In the cold weather it may be met with at Agra, Cawnpoor, and even Jhansi, Saugor, and Hoshungabad; but during the summer months I only know of its occurring in Cutch, Katywar, Sindh, Rajpootana, and the Punjab. In all these localities it breeds, laying for the most part in July and August in the Punjab, but somewhat earlier in Sindh. I have, even in Rajpootana, seen eggs towards the end of May, but this is the exception. ”

“ Noon after noon I watched the Bulbuls build,
⁠And saw with hungry eyes the Sun-birds pair.
None came, and none will come; no use to wait,—
⁠Youth's fragrance dies, its tender light dies down.
I will arise, before it grows too late,
⁠And seek the noisy brilliance of the town. ”

“ In young birds the tail is very short, and the patch of feathers under it is pale red instead of being bright crimson.
Natives of India keep bulbuls for fighting purposes. These birds are not caged, but are tied to a cloth-covered perch by a long piece of fine twine attached to the leg. Bulbuls, although full of pluck, are not by nature quarrelsome. In order to make them fight they are kept without food for some time. ”

“ This species commonly fed in the shade trees (Trema orientalis) , along with other species of bulbuls. I occasionally saw individuals in primary forest.
Criniger bres gutturalis (Bonaparte) : Olive White-throated Bulbul.—Specimens, 25: Cocoa Research Station: ♀ ovary regressed, 41.4 gm., July 27, 1962, MCT 2666; ♀, 46.0 gm., July 28, 1962, MCT 2672; ♂, 51.2 gm., July 31, 1962, heavy molt, MCT 2685; ♂ testis 4 × 3 mm., 52.6 gm., August 2, 1962, MCT 2710 ”

“ This distinct species may be recognized by its entirely seal-brown head.
“The Siquijor bulbul is found about low bushes in open fields, often in flocks. Twelve males average: Length, 279; wing, 132; tail, 118; culmen, 31; tarsus, 22; middle toe with claw, 25. Four females, wing, 121; tail, 109; culmen, 30; tarsus, 22; middle toe with claw, 23. Iris chocolate-brown; legs, feet, and nails brown, bottoms of feet yellowish; upper mandible black, lower black to dark brown.” (Bourns and Worcester MS.) [511] ”

“ A dialect is an incipient language, even as a race is a potential species.
But let us return to our bulbuls. The habits of both Otocompsa and Molpastes are so similar that we can speak of them together. They are what Mr. Finn calls thoroughly nice birds. They are, none of them, great songsters, but all continually give forth exceedingly cheery notes. The twittering of the red-whiskered bulbuls is not the least of the charms of our southern hill stations.
Bulbuls feed on insects and berries, so are apt to be destructive in gardens. ”

“ Black bulbuls look black only when seen from a distance. When closely inspected their plumage is seen to be dark grey. The bill and legs are red. The crest, I regret to say, usually looks the worse for wear. Black bulbuls seem never to descend to the ground. They keep almost exclusively to tops of lofty trees. They are very partial to the nectar enclosed within the calyces of rhododendron flowers. A party of half a dozen untidy black birds, with moderately long tails, which keep to the tops of trees and make much noise, may with certainty be set down as black bulbuls. ”

“ The Iora (13) . 3. The Common Green Bulbul (14) . (Patch of yellow on forehead.) 4. The White-eared Bulbul (19) . (Yellow patch under the tail.) 5. The White-browed Bulbul (22) . (Pale yellow patch under tail.) 6. (Hen) Minivets (39, 40, and 41) . 7. The Orioles (44 and 45) . 8. The Grackles or Hill Mynas (46 and 47) . (Black birds with yellow beak, legs, and wattles.) 9. The Common Myna (52) . (Yellow beak, legs, and patch of skin behind eye.) 10. The Pied Myna (54) . (Orange patch of skin behind eye.) 11. The Grey-headed Flycatcher (56) . 12. (Cock) Bayas (at breeding season) (70-73) . 13. ”

“ Bulbuls are gregarious arboreal birds of feeble flight, rarely seen upon the ground, where they move with awkward shuffles or short hops. The majority are sociable, and frequent gardens, {506}orchards, forests, and low jungles; they feed chiefly upon fruits, including berries and seeds, but also upon insects, which Aethorhynchus, Aegithina, and Chloropsis in especial seek among the leaves and branches of the trees. The ordinary note is a mellow cheerful whistle, becoming a pretty song in such species as Pycnonotus haemorrhous, and P. xanthopygus, the Ceylon and Palestine Nightingales ”

“ Now, I regard all these different bulbuls as local races of one species, which might perhaps be called Molpastes indicus; and I think that I am justified in holding this view by the fact that the bulbuls you come across at Lucknow do not fit in with the description of any of these so-called species. The reason is that the Bengal and the Madras races meet at Lucknow, and of course interbreed. ”

“ I therefore determined to devote some hours to studying the ways of those bulbuls at the nest. Every naturalist has his own method of prying into the ways of the fowls of the air or the beasts of the field. Some expose themselves to the Indian sun at midday in May, others will squat for hours in feverish swamps. ”

“ Everywhere in the fields and the groves are heard the cawing of the crows, the wailing of the kites, the cooing of the doves, the twittering of the sparrows, the crooning of the white-eyes, the fluting of the wood-shrikes, the tinkling of the bulbuls, the chattering of the mynas, the screaming of the green parrots, the golden-backed woodpeckers and the white-breasted kingfishers, the mingled harmony and discord of the tree-pies, the sharp monosyllabic notes of the various warblers, the melody of the sunbirds and the flycatchers. ”

“ Sumptuous cream-coloured bullocks move sleepily about with an air of luxurious sloth; and sleek Brahmans utter their lazy prayers while bathing languidly in the water and sunshine of the tank Even the buffaloes have nothing to do, but float the livelong day deeply immersed in the bulrushes. Everything is steeped in repose. ”

“ Iris puts on her robe of many colors, and tingeing the sky with her bow, seeks the palace of the King of Sleep. Near the Cimmerian country, a mountain cave is the abode of the dull god Somnus. Here Phoebus dares not come, either rising, at midday, or setting. Clouds and shadows are exhaled from the ground, and the light glimmers faintly. The bird of dawning, with crested head, never there calls aloud to Aurora, nor watchful dog, nor more sagacious goose disturbs the silence. No wild beast, nor cattle, nor branch moved with the wind, nor sound of human conversation, breaks the stillness. ”

“ The big Broken Bulimus, that lover of crumbling walls and limestone rocks leaning in the sun, sacrifices the graces of symmetry to utility. When the lower spirals are no longer wide enough, he abandons them altogether and moves higher up, into the spacious staircase of recent formation. ”

“ The swelling sea seems lifted up to the heavens, to scatter its foam among the clouds; then sinking away to the bottom assumes the color of the shoal, a Stygian blackness.
The vessel obeys all these changes. It seems like a wild beast that rushes on the spears of the hunters. Rain falls in torrents, as if the skies were coming down to unite with the sea. When the lightning ceases for a moment, the night seems to add its own darkness to that of the storm ”

“ The Wind Eaters were not long in getting accustomed to the, to them, at first, startling sight of “crimson tongues darting from the mouths of black clouds.” In fact, they soon learned to like the odor of the delicate morsels as they lay broiling on the embers, and when the air was chilly, didn’t hesitate to form a circle around Bulger and me as we sat eating our dinner and enjoy the warmth, and to them, curious spectacle at the same time. ”

“ I am not a foe. Do not fly me as a lamb flies the wolf, or a dove the hawk. It is for love I pursue you. You make me miserable, for fear you should fall and hurt yourself on these stones, and I should be the cause. Pray run slower, and I will follow slower. I am no clown, no rude peasant. Jupiter is my father, and I am lord of Delphos and Tenedos, and know all things, present and future. I am the god of song and the lyre. My arrows fly true to the mark; but, alas! an arrow more fatal than mine has pierced my heart! I am the god of medicine, and know the virtues of all healing plants. Alas! ”

“ I called out and in quicker time than it takes to tell it, I was on my way to the shore of the Sculptors’ Isle.
Faithful Bulger sat beside me, his eyes bright and expressive as he gazed into my face.
Landing at the foot of the marble stairway, I sprang lightly out of the launch, followed by Bulger, and bounded up the marble steps.
There were three landings before I reached the level of the temple, from each of which the outlook grew more and more delightful. In truth, it was a glorious approach to produce which art and nature had fairly outdone themselves. ”