208 ALCIPPE. 



are two specimens of Parisoma subcsendeum with a few 

 feathers, evidently the remains of the last moult, which are 

 barred with black and white. 



In the nostrils being placed in a groove, and in the form 

 and structure of the nest as well as in the manner in which 

 it is attached to boughs, these birds resemble the Zosteropidse ; 

 but they differ in the form of the wing and in laying spotted 

 eggs, and in these characters resemble the Paridee. The wings 

 in the types of Parus, Parisoma and Alcippe are alike in form. 

 The Parisomida3 build a cup-shaped nest, which is placed at 

 the end of a bough near the ground, and, as with the 

 Zosteropidse, it is suspended from rather than resting on the 

 fork or twigs to which it is attached. It is constructed of dry 

 leaves, fine grass rootlets, moss, &c, bound together and 

 attached to the branch often with spider's web. 



The genus Alcippe ranges over South Africa and Tropical 

 East Africa through the highlands of India, Ceylon, Malay 

 Peninsula and Southern China to Borneo and Formosa. It 

 comprises some fifteen known species, of which three only 

 occur in the Ethiopian region and these are confined to the 

 African continent, and the genus Parisoma is purely 

 African. 



KEY TO THE GENERA. 



a. Nostrils exposed ; tail entirely brown . . . Alcippe. 



b. Nostrils covered by hair-like feathers; a dis- 



tinct white pattern on the tail Parisoma. 



Genus I. ALCIPPE. 



Bill rather stout and wide, nostrils exposed; wing rounded, secondaries 

 fall short of tip of wing by about half the length of the first primary; 

 bastard primary nearly half the leugth of the fifth, which latter reaches 



