It is said to have a soft, mellow whistle and to feed on insects, seeds and certain fruit. It is found in small flocks in the non-breeding season.
Iole olivacea.
Iole olivacea olivacea is an inhabitant of Singapore but there are several geographical races found within the limits of the present work, one of which, virescens, has been accorded the status of a species and the other two until recently ignored entirely.
Key to Subspecies.
| A. |
Under tail-coverts yellow
....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
|
I. olivacea virescens, p. 406. |
| B. |
Under tail-coverts cinnamon.
|
| a. |
Wing under 82 mm.
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|
I. o. cinnamomeoventris, p. 407. |
| b. |
Wing over 82 mm.
....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
|
I. o. lönnbergi, p. 408. |
(420) Iole olivacea virescens.
The Olive Bulbul.
Iole virescens Blyth, J. A. S. B., xiv, p. 573 (1845) (Arrakan); Blanf. & Oates, i, p. 284.
Vernacular names. Daobulip-gurrmo (Cachari).
Description. Lores and short eyebrow olive-yellow; ear-coverts dark olive; remainder of upper plumage from forehead to rump olive-green; upper tail-coverts and tail rather bright rufous-brown; sides of the neck olive-brown; whole under-surface from chin to vent yellow, more or less suffused with olive-yellow; wings dark brown, the coverts and inner secondaries broadly, the remaining feathers narrowly, edged with rufescent olive-brown.
Colours of soft parts. Iris brown or red-brown; eyelids grey; bill bluish-horn, the mouth flesh-colour; legs and claws pinkish brown.
Measurements. Length about 185 to 190 mm.; wing 76 to 82 mm.; tail about 85 mm.; tarsus about 18 mm.; culmen about 15 mm.
Distribution. Cachar, Sylhet, Tippera and the plains and lower hills of Western Burma as far South as Pegu.
Nidification. There is apparently nothing recorded about the nesting of this Bulbul beyond my own notes in 'The Ibis' and Bombay Natural History Society's Journal (1892, p. 6). The nests are compact, well-made cups composed of a few dead leaves and tiny elastic twigs well interwoven with and bound together by long strips of what looks like the inner bark of some tree. They were all, with one exception, in horizontal forks, the branches of which were incorporated in the sides of the nest about two-thirds up. The lining was in each case of black fern roots and the long red tendrils of a small yellow ground-convolvulus. All my nests
