458 TROGLODYTIU.E. 



(^71) Pnoepyga squamata squamata. 

 The Scaly-beeasteu When. 



Microura squamata Gould, Icon. Aves, pi. v (1837) (Cacliar). 

 Pnoejn/ga squamata. Blanf. & Gates, i, p. 342. 



Vernacular names. MarclwTc-boncj (Lepcha) ; Inrui-ha gadiha 

 (Kacha iSaga). 



Description. — Adult male. Whole upper plumage and lesser 

 wing-coverts rich golden-brown, the forehead, feathers above the 

 eye and sides of neck with fulvous shaft-stripes, the remaining upper 

 plumage with fulvous subterminal drops and with black edges, the 

 latter becomiug bolder on the rump where the drops otten become 

 bars; median and greater coverts brown, broadly edged with 

 chestnut-brown and often with terminal fulvous spots ; primaries 

 and secondaries chestnut-brown on the visible portions and the 

 innermost secondaries often tipped with fulvous ; chin and throat , 

 white with brown edges to the feathers ; breast and centre of the 

 abdomen white, the feathers with broad black centres and edges ; 

 sides of the breast and flanks fulvous-brown with similar dark 

 centres and margins ; under tail-coverts and vent fulvous. 



Colours of soft parts. Iris bright hazel to deep brown ; bill 

 horny-brown above, pale fleshy-horny on lower mandible, gape and 

 commissure; legs tleshy-brow n to light brown. 



Measurements. Length about 100 mm.; wing 59 to 64 mm.; 

 tail about 14 mm.; tarsus 21 to "2;i mm.; culmen 11 to 12 mm. 



Adult female. Similar to the male but with the whole lower 

 pluuiage fulvous instead of white, every part marked as in the 

 male, though in some specimens the chin and throat are almost 

 immaculate. 



Distribution. The Himalayas from the Sutlej Valley to Eastern 

 Assam, both North and South of the Brahmaputra ; Chin Hills 

 and West and South-West Burma to Tenasserim. 



Nidification. The Scaly-breasted Wren breeds from tlie end of 

 April to the middle of June between 3,500 and 7,000 feet. It 

 makes two very distinct types of nest, either of which is among 

 the most beautiful specimens of birds' architecture. That most 

 coHjmonly made is built in and of the long strands of brilliant 

 green moss which clothes the trunks and branches of so many trees 

 "in the more humid forests. The inner strands are compactly and 

 firmly woven together to form a tiny cup, well lined with black 

 moss roots, over all of which the outer green strands fall in natural 

 profusion so that the tiny entrance, little more than an inch across, 

 can never be found without most careful search. The second type 

 of nest is a tiny ball of the same brilliant green moss, tightly 

 wedged in amongst the masses of orchids, ferns and creepers 

 growing over trees, dead and alive, or fallen logs. A tnird type 

 of nest, a cup-shaped one of moss, was found by Mandelli in a bush. 



