Capt. R. C. Beavan on various Indian Birds. 4Z7 



place. The song is excessively sweet and musical, but does not 

 last long, and bears some resemblance to the notes of a wind- 

 instrument. The irides are pure clear brown ; bill and legs 

 brownish-horny, or^light dirty brown. The bill is darker at 

 base, and along the ridge of the upper mandible. The feathers 

 of the head and neck are black -shafted, those of the back are 

 white-shafted, and of the throat and breast rufous-shafted. 

 The plumage, excepting upper and lower tail- coverts (which are 

 loose and puffy), has a harsh spinous feel to the touch. This 

 species is very abundant in gardens and groves about Simla, 

 usually seen in ' parties of six or seven. When running it 

 looks so like a rat that my dogs gave chase to a wounded oncj 

 evidently thinking they were after a mammal. On the 16th of 

 August, 1866, I found the nest in the garden, in a rose-bush, 

 with four pale blue eggs in it, like those of Acridotheres tristis. 

 The nest is a large structure firmly built of dry twigs, bark, 

 sticks, ferns, and roots; diameter 3'75 x 3, depth inside 2*75, 

 height outside nearly 5, exterior circumference about 18. 

 Eggs, A 1 X -75, B 1-0312 x -75, C 1 x -6875, D 10312 x '75. 

 Another nest, with three eggs only, was found in a thick clump 

 of everlasting peas close to the ground on the 6th of September. 

 The female sat very close, and this may possibly have been the 

 second nest of the same pair that built the nest mentioned above, 

 as it was built not far from the first. 



427. AcTiNODURA EGERTONi. Rufous Bar-wiug. 

 Darjeeling collection, 1862. Two specimens. 



428. AcTiNODURA NEPALENsis. Hoary Bar-wing. 

 Darjeeling collection, 1862. Two specimens. 



429. SiBiA CAPiSTRATA. Black-hcadcd Sibia. 

 Darjeeling collection, 1862. Five specimens. 



1 procured several specimeas at Simla. Dimensions : — 



Length. Wing. Tail. Tarsus. Bill. Gape. Spread foot. Extent. 

 A.... 9-25 4 4-5 M875 75 . . .. 11-51 



B.... 9-125 4-125 4-5 1-18/5 '75 -93/5 M875 11 



Irides reddish-brown ; legs fleshy-brown in some, dirty purple- 

 red in others, claws darker; bill black. Dr. Jerdon, in his de- 



