TCD MS 10515 folio 44r
[April 28th 1916]
the Western Himilaya. Here I observe the same birds, bees, butterflies, ants that frequent the hills and valleys of Hazara. The active Myrmecocystus bustles about it’s work with the same untiring skill; Messor, the harvester; in the same long column, toils laboriously on; the communicating ant [ X ] despatches the same plundering armes to overwhelm and retrieve the spoil. Though the Sub Himilayan valleys may differ from the fringe of the Mesopotamian desert in its pine clad hills and fertile valleys, yet the battle of life is much the same. Of the birds of the palm-groves only one pleases the ear with a cheerful note. This was the white eared Bulbul, Otocumpsa leucotis*, conspicuous amongst the palm fronds by the brilliant yellow of its under tail coverts. It was the only bright joy-
*Is this Molpastes leucogenys?