SIVA. '6V6 



(333) Siva strigula strigula. 



The Stripe-throated Siva. 



Siva stri</ula Hodgs., Tnd. Rev., 1838, p. 89 (Nepal) ; Blanf. & Oatei=, 

 i, p. 208. 



Vernacular names. Majhlim (Lepcha). 



Description. Porebead, crown and nape bright orange-brown ; 

 a ring of yellowish i'eatbei's round the eye; sides of head grey, 

 mottled with whitish and dusky ; upper plumage slaty-green ; 

 middle pair of tail-feathers chestnut-red on half the inner and 

 one-third the outer webs at the base, the remaining two-thirds 

 black tipped with white ; the next pair black with a trace of x'ed 

 at the base and tipped yellow; the other feathers black with 

 increasingly broad yellow tips, the outermost pair being all of 

 this colour: wing-coverts and winglet like the back; primary- 

 coverts black ; primaries and outer secondaries black, the outer 



Fig. 57. — Head of 8. s. strigula. 



webs edged with orange, changing to yellow near tlie tips, inner 

 secondaries chiefly slatj^-grey on the outer webs and black on tlie 

 inner and tipped with white; chin orange-yellow; throat pale 

 yellow, with narrow crescentic black cross-bars ; a narrow 

 moustachial stripe and a patch on the side of the neck black ; 

 I'emaining lower plumage bright yellow, tinged with olivaceous on 

 the sides of the breast and abdomen. 



Colours of soft parts. Iris dark reddish-brown; upper mandible 

 dark brown, lower mandible light greyish-brown, tip w'hite ; legs 

 and feet grey, claws light brown. 



Measurements. Total length about 165 mm. ; wing 64 to 69 mm. ; 

 tail about 70 to 72 mm. ; tarsus about 25 mm.; culmeu 12 to 13 mm. 



"The young appear to have the crown light golden yellow inter- 

 mingled with grey, and to have the bars on the throat less 

 developed '' {Oates). 



Distribution. The Himalayas from the Sutlej Valley to Eastern 

 Assam JVorth and South of the Brahmaputra Valley. 



Nidification. The Stripe-throated Siva breeds in May and June 

 at heights between 4,000 and 9,000 feet or higher, making a 

 neat ciip-shaped nest of moss, roots and bamboo leaves, sometimes 

 with a few other dead leaves aud reed-stems and lined with roots. 



