SAXICOLIN A. 199 
olive-brown ; the wings and tail black; the lores, ear-coverts, 
and lower plumage also black; a white wing-spot, asin the 
last ; the vent and centre of belly deep chesnut. 
The female is sooty-brown throughout, except the chesnut 
beneath. 
The Brown-backed or Northern Indian Robin is a common 
permanent resident throughout the district, excepting the Deccan, 
where it is replaced by Thamnobia fulicata. 
Its breeding habits are much like the last, but the eggs are 
larger, averaging 0°79 in length by 0°59 in breadth. 
Genus, Pratincola, Koch. 
Bill short, straight, somewhat wide at base, strongly curving 
at tip, which is faintly notched; nostrils concealed by tufts of 
hairs and plumes; strong rictal bristles; wings moderate ; fourth, 
fifth and sixth quills nearly equal and longest; tail moderate, 
nearly even; tarsus moderate, longish; feet moderate; claws 
slightly curved, slender. 
Pratincola caprata, Linn. 
481.—Jerdon’s Birds of India, Vol. I, p. 123; Butler, Guzerat ; 
Stray Feathers, Vol. III, p. 474; Deccan, Stray Feathers, 
Vol. IX, p. 404; Murray’s Vertebrate Zoology of Sind, p. 141; 
Swinhoe and Barnes, Central India ; Ibis, p. 124. 
THE WHITE-WINGED BLAcK Rosin. 
Length, 5 ; wing, 2°75; tail, 2:2; tarsus, 0°75; bill at front, 0°38. 
Bill black ; irides deep-brown ; legs brown-black. 
Male, black ;a longitudinal band on the wings, the rump 
and the upper tail-coverts, and the middle of the lower part of 
the abdomen, vent, and under tail-coverts, white. When 
newly moulted, the black is fringed with brown edgings, which 
gradually get worn away. 
Female, dusky-brown, the feathers edged paler witha rufous 
rump and upper tail-coverts ; beneath pale reddish-brown, albes- 
cent on the throat and vent; abdomen slightly streaked ; vent 
and under tail-coverts tinged with rufous. 
The White-winged Black Robin is a common permanent 
resident throughout the district ; it, however, almost disappears 
from some parts during the breeding season, which is from 
March to May. They build flat saucer-shaped or pad-like nests 
in holes in the sides of wells or banks, occasionally in a bush, 
but even then the nest rests actually on the ground. The nest 
is composed of grass, fine roots, vegetable fibres, &c., and usually 
‘contains four eggs, but three incubated ones are often found 
and at times as many as five. 
They are moderately broad ovals in shape, of a greenish-white 
or greenish-blue color, densely but finely speckled with brownish- 
red. They differ greatly in size, but average 0°67 inches in 
length by about 0°55 in breadth. 
