SIMALIN 42, 179 
Malacocercus terricolor, Hodgson. 
432.—Jerdon’s Birds of India, Vol. II, p. 59; Butler, Guzerat ; 
Stray Feathers, Vol. III, p. 472; Murray’s Vertebrate Zoology 
of Sind, p. 133 ; Swinhoe and Barnes, Central India; Ibis, 1885, 
p. 67. 
THE BENGAL BABBLER, 
Sat bhai, Hin. 
Length, 9 to 10; extent, 13; wing, 412; tail, 4:5; tarsus, 
1:5; bill at front, 0°75. 
Bill horny-brown ; irides pale yellow; legs dingy-yellow. 
Above brownish-ashy, paler and somewhat cinereous on the 
head and neck, browner on the back, where the feathers are 
faintly pale shafted ; quills brown, with outer webs paler, and 
narrowly bordered with ashy ; tail reddish-brown, faintly barred, 
and the outer feathers tipped with pale whity-brown ; beneath 
pale ashy-brown on the throat and breast, the feathers very faintly 
edged and shafted lighter ; abdomen, vent, and under tail-coverts, 
pale fulvescent. 
With the exception of the Deccan, the Bengal Babbler is 
common throughout our limits; it is a permanent resident and 
breeds from March to July. 
The nests are often found in gardens, in fruit trees, vineries, 
thick hedges, and in fact almost anywhere; they are of a deep 
cup-shape, generally loosely constructed, but occasionally they 
are more neatly made; they are composed of grass stems and 
roots. 
The eggs, three or four in number, are variable both in shape 
and color, but are typically broad oval in shape and deep blue 
in color. 
They average one inch in length by about 0°78 in breadth. 
They are in general highly glossy. 
Malacocercus griseus, Latham, 
433.—Jerdon’s Birds of India, Vol. II, p. 60; Butler, Deccan ; 
Stray Feathers, Vol. IX, p. 400. 
THE WHITE-HEADED BABBLER. 
Length, 9; wing, 4; tail, 4; tarsus, 1:25; bill at front, 0°55. 
Bill yellowish ; irides yellowish-white ; legs fleshy-yellow. 
Head, lores and nape, fulvescent or dirty-whitish ; plumage 
above darker brown than the last, the feathers with pale 
shafts; quills not barred; tail brown, very faintly barred, and 
the outer feathers tipped pale; beneath the chin and throat 
are mixed brown and ashy, conspicuously darker than the 
neighbouring parts, each feather being ashy at the base, 
and with a dark band, tipped paler; as the pale tip gets worn 
away, the dark tinge becomes more apparent; from the breast 
the rest of the lower parts are pale fulvescent, inclining to 
rufescent. 
