BULBUL. PEus. A term employed among the various Mahomedan nations of Southern Asia, to designate birds belonging to several generic divisions of a natural family. The Persian bulbul is a species of true nightingale ; it is the Luscinia major (or Sylvia philomela of Tenuninek), and is known as the Bulbul-i-bostan in India, where it is frequently imported as a cage-bird. In Persia it is often called the Bulbul-i-hazar &sten, the bulbul of a thousand notes • and its genus, Luseinia, is very closely allied to the small thrushes of America. The Persians delight to speak of this favourite song-bird, which Moore has made widely known : `There's a bower of roses by Bendemeer's stream, And the nightingale sings round it all tho day long : In the time of my childhood %was like a sweet dream.
To sit in the roses and hear the birds' song. That bower and its music I never forget ; But oft, when alone in the bloom of the year, I think, Is the nightingale singing there yet Are the roses still bright by the calm Bendemeer!' It is migratory there, making its appearance with the roses in April, and disappearing with the rose at the end of summer. According to Zakary bin Mahomed-al-Kaswini, the Persians say the bulbul has a passion for the rose, and laments and cries when he sees it pulled. The English night ingale, Luscinia philomela (Philomela luscinia), is migratory through Europe, N. Africa, and Asia Minor, but is not known in India or Persia. Indeed, there is no true nightingale, wild, in British India ; but the shame, Cercotriehas mac rourus, undoubtedly the finest song - bird of British India, is not unfrequently designated the Indian nightingale. It is common to India and the Malay countries ; and there is a second species (C. luzoniensis) in the Philippines, and a third (C. erytbropterus) in Africa. The esteemed Indian songster is le merle tricolor de longue queue of Levaillant (Oiseaux d'Afrique, pl. 114). We may remark that the Orocetes cinclorhyncha is also termed Shama in the Madras Presidency. The bulbul of Southern India is not even a song-bird, the term being applied to the Bulbul-i-gul-dum, Hmmatornis cafer, which is a common cage-bird, and, like quails and cocks, trained to fight ; and when pitted against an antagonist, it will sink from exhaustion rather than release its hold. The Husaini bulbul, also called the Shah bulbul, is of another sub-family, the Myagrinm, and is known also as the Paradise fly catcher. It is of a chestnut colour for many
months, but becomes white in the breeding season. It is a very graceful bird, with very long tail feathers, and it is a pretty sight to see it flitting from tree to tree. How the birds prevent the long tail feathers from becoming entangled in the thorny trees, is very curious. In Ceylon, the chestnut bird is called the fire thief, and the white bird the cotton thief. Its colouring is chaste, and its movements in flight graceful, Mr. Layard has often watched them, when seeking their insect prey, turn suddenly on their perch and whisk their long tails with a jerk over the bough, as if to protect the feathers from injury.
In the Madras Presidency, the three-coloured thrush, Geocichla cyanotus, is sometimes called a bulbul ; and the hill bulbul of Matberan is the Otocompsa jocosa. It has crimson ear-tufts.
Dr. Jerdon arranges the Brachypodidm into four sub-families, — the Pycnonotinm or true bulbuls, the Phyllornithinaa or green bulbuls, the Ireninm or blue-birds, and the Oriolinm or orioles. He names Hypsipetes psaroides, Vig. Himalayan black bulbul.
H. Neilgherriensis, Jerdon. Neilgherry black bulbul.
H. Ganeesa, Sykes. Ghat black bulbul.
M`Clellandi, Horsf. Rufous-bellied bulbul. Hemixos flavala, Hodgson. Brown-eared bulbul. Alcurue striatus, Blyth. Striated green bulbul. Criniger ictericus, Strickland. Yellow-browed bulbul. C. flaveolus, Gould. White-throated bulbul.
Ixos luteolus, Less. White-browed bush bulbul.
I. xantholmmus, Jerdon. Yellow-throated bush do. Kelaartia penicillata, Blyth. Yellow-eared bulbul. Rubigula gularis, Gould. Ruby-throated bulbul. It. flaviventris, Tickell. Black-crested yellow bulbul. Brachypodius poiocepbalus, Jerdon. Grey-headed do. Otocompsa leucogenys, Gray. White-cheeked crested 0. leucotis, Gould. White-cheeked eared bulbul. 0. jocosa, Linn. Red-whiskered bulbul.
Pycnonotus pygceus, Hodgson. Common Bengal do. P. pygceus hmorhous, Gmelin. Common Madras do. Phyllornis Jerdoni, Blyth. Common green bulbul. P. Malabarious, Lthm. Malabar green bulbul.
P. aurifrons, Temm. Gold-fronted bulbul.
P. Hardwickii, Jard. and Selb. Blue-winged bulbul. bra Zeylonica, Gmelin. Blick-headed bulbul.
' I. typhia, Linn. White-winged green bulbuL I. scapularis of the Archipelago.
I. Lafresnayii of Arakan.
—Jerdon, Birds of India ; Layard's Nat. Hist. of Ceylon ; Cal. Rev. See Birds.