356 TIMALIID^. 



grey-brown to greenish-leaden, with a wax-yellow tinge on toes, 

 more decided in males than females ; soles wax-yellow [Hume). 



Measurements. Length about 140 mm. ; \a ing 62 to 65 mm. ; 

 tail about 55 mm. ; tarsus about 21 mm. ; culmen about 10 to 11 mm. 



Female and young male difier from the adult male in having the 

 back, rump, scapulars and upper tail-coverts vinaceous brown ; 

 the crimson on the wing is replaced by pinkish w hite and on the 

 tail by pale red. 



Distribution. The Himalayas from Nepal to Eastern Assam in 

 the Miri Hills, South to Manipur, Cachar, Naga Hills, etc. 



Nidification. The Eed-tailed Minla breeds throughout its 

 range between 5,000 and 10,000 feet, making a most lovely little 

 pendent cup or deep purse of fine green moss, lined plentifully 

 with wool, hair or vegetable down, sometimes hair and down 

 being mixed. They are placed in small forks of busiies 4 to 

 10 feet from the ground in evergreen forest. The eggs are two 

 or three in number — Hodgson says four— and in colour just like 

 the eggs of Fropasser or Siva, that is to say. deep Hedge- 

 Sparrow's egg-blue with a few spots and specks of black or 

 reddish. Fifteen eggs average 19*3 x 14'6 mm. 



The breeding season is May and June. 



Habits. The Minla is found up to at least 10,000 feet and 

 possibly still higher in the upper forested portions of the Chambi 

 Vallev and Native Sikkim. It is said to go about in small parties, 

 having much the habits of the Sivas, but in the Assam Hills it 

 was very rare and I only saw it in pairs. In these hills it keeps 

 much to the oak and rhododendron forest at about 6,000 feet. 



Genus HYPOCOLIUS Bonap., 1850. 



Since Blanford and Oates's first edition of the Avifauna was 

 published, Mr. W. D. Gumming has written in the Bombay 

 Natural History Society's Journal (vol. xii, pp. 760-765, 1900) 

 some most interesting notes on this curious bird, whicii tend 

 rather to confirm than to disprove its position in the Liotrichimx. 

 The young are practically the same as the female in plumage and 

 shc/W no signs of barring, so that they cannot be placed in the 

 LaniidcH or Campephagidce. It has two moults but the plumage 

 does not seem to differ, except that it is said to be brighter and 

 clearer in the summer than in the winter. 



The sexes are dissimilar. 



In HypocoUvs the bill is stout and broad at the base and about 

 half the length of the head ; the nostrils are small exposed ovals; 

 the rictal bristles are weak but always clearly visible ; the wing is 

 short but pointed, the first jH-imary being miiiute and the second 

 reaching to the tip of the wing. The tail is long and slightly 

 graduated. The tarsus is very short and stout, shorter than the 

 middle toe and claw and is coarsely scutellated. 



