'^^ Zoological Society : — 



tlie genus, but it is by far tlie most highly coloured and beautifully 

 marked ; the mantle, the sides of the neck and the flank-feathers 

 are conspicuously striated with black, chestnut and grey ; the same 

 parts in the other species being sombre in comparison. 



Specimens are contained in the collection at the British Museum, 

 in that of the East India Company, and, Mr. Gould believes, in that 

 of the Jardin des Plantes at Paris. 



April 25. — Dr. Gray, Vice-President, in the Chaic, ,^(^^j^^'\fy 



•''■•■' ■»fiji'> 



Notes on the Habits of some Indian Birds. Part 111,^5^/ 



By Lieut. Burgess. , ^^ ^ind 



,89D0«j... Famdy MERULID.B. .^^^^ — (dA 



mdidil^ ; Subfamily Timalin^. «^->^'>^q i^ 'nxi 



16 rmij io B! n-m siodonivvj ni j to o-^ 



; hsH^mi y Genus Timaliaj asod hnd doidw lot.t'^f & 



^, TiMALiA Malcolmi, Sykcs. Large Babbler. ''.' 



This Large Babbler, though not generally so common, I believe, 

 as Timalia ffrisea, I have shot in the Deccan in the districts near 

 the city of Ahmednuggur. It is gregarious in its habits, flying about 

 in flocks of eight or ten. It lives much on the ground, seeking its 

 food, which consists of grasshoppers, beetles, black and white ants, 

 and other insects, under large trees and hedgerows, scratching up 

 and turning over the dead leaves with its strong claws. It also feeds 

 on grain ; the stomach of one which I examined contained bajocee 

 seeds and the remains of black ants, of another the remains of black 

 and white ants. This fact, I think, accounts for the habit of these 

 birds, of scratching amongst the decayed leaves round the trunks 

 of large trees, where both the black and white ants are sure to 

 be found ; indeed it is almost impossible to find a large tree with- 

 out a colony of the former round its roots. I am not certain whether 

 the nest and eggs in the Museum of the Zoological Society, marked 

 as those of the Greater Thimalia, belong to this bird, or to Timalia 

 grisea-y but as I procured two or three specimens of the Large 

 Babbler and not one of T. grisea, I think that there is every pro- 

 bability that the nest and eggs belong to this species. I believe 

 that birds of the genus Timalia breed twice during the year, as I 

 have found their nests in the months of May and October. The 

 nest brought to me in the month of October was found in a tuft of 

 high grass in a boggy piece of ground ; it contained four eggs of a 

 uniform rich blue, -^^ in. in length by nearly y'^ in. in width. The 

 number of eggs does not exceed four. The nest above-mentioned 

 was composed of coarse matted grass at the bottom, and finer bents 

 on the sides, lined also with bents of grass ; it was loosely put together. 

 There are the nest and eggs of another species of Timalia in the 

 ^Museum of the Zoological Society ; but not having put the bird off 

 "her nest, I am unable positively to assert to what species they belong. 

 I believe, from the smallness of the eggs, that they probably belong 



