LlilOTKICHTNit:. 



257 



Bill plumbeous ; legs pule lleshy ; irides brown. Length 4^ 

 inches ; extent 6 ; ^nng 2 ; tail 2 ; bill at front not j%. 



This pretty little bird is not very common in Sikhim, and I did 

 not myself observe it. It is also found in Nepal, but I did not 

 procure it on the Khasia Hills. 



622. Proparus vinipectus, Hodgson. 

 Siva, apud Hodgson.— Blytii, Cat. 515— Horsf., Cat. 593. 



Thk Plain buown Hill-tit. 



Descr. — Head crested ; plumage above and ear-coverts brown, 

 passing into rusty in the rump ; -wings and tail dusky black, with 

 the outer webs of some of the quills rusty, and the base of the 

 caudals the same ; the first four primaries with hoary edges ; a 

 white eyebrow extending to the nape ; beneath, dirty white, tinged 

 with vinous on the breast, and somewhat brownish towards the 

 vent. 



Bill and legs lleshy brown. Length 4f ; wing 2^ ; tail not 

 quite 2 ; tarsus y|. 



This bird was originally described by Hodgson as a Siva, and 

 afterwards Proparus. Bonaparte has made it a Pcecila of Kaup 

 among the true Pari. Hodgson remarks of it "distinguished by its 

 perfectly Parian bill without a trace of a notch, and by its long, 

 but not very falcate nails." 



Besides its strong affinities for Pants, it also tends in its colora- 

 tion towards the next group. It has hitherto only been sent from 

 Nepal and the N. W. Himalayas. 



3rd. — Flower-peckers {Ixuleae). 



These birds have the bill more slender and lengthened, and 

 slightly curved in some. They are, like the last, mostly social in 

 their habits, frequent the extreme branches of trees, especially 

 searchino- flowers for the minute insects harboured there. l\Iost 

 of them are of plain and sombre plumage ; one genus only having 

 somewhat bright colours. 



Gray places them in his Mniotiltince, next to the Parinm. Hors- 

 field classes most of them in the Pycnonotina, one alone, Erpornis, 

 in the Timalinee. Bonaparte locates them in the Melliphagina; ; and 



2 K 



