ACANTHOPTILA. 203 
which differentiates it from caudata; but their differences are 
bridged over by the Large Rufous Babbler, which has an inter- 
mediate shaped bill which is partly black and has the feathers of 
the forehead with the shafts distinctly stiff and bare at the tips. 
Blyth placed both subrufa and longirostris in a separate genus, 
Layardia, but i view ot the gradation in degree in the character- 
istics defining them, I keep them altogether under Argya. 
Distribution. The Nepal Terai, Bhutan and Buxa Duars, the 
Terai at the foot of the Himalayas, North of the Brahmaputra to 
Sadiya and the grass plateaus of the ‘hills South of that river to 
Manipur and Chittagong. 
Nidification. This Babbler breeds not uncommonly on the grass 
plateaus in the Khasia Hills during May and June, inaking a cup- 
shaped nest of grass, lined with grass stems and placed in amongst 
grass or reeds, a bush or tangle of brambles, or even on an old 
stump or a broken-down wall or bank. The eggs number three 
or four, but are a rather paler blue than are the eggs of most of 
those of the genera Argya or Turdoides thoveh quite similar in 
shape and texture. ‘Twenty-one eggs average about 21°5x 
16-7 mm. 
Habits. These are of the gregarious, noisy and restless nature 
of the rest of the group. Hume, in Manipur, and myself, in the 
Khasia Hills, found them nearly always in the long grass covering 
wide extents of hill and valley, where they fed both on the ground 
and on the grass and reeds. Several of their notes were quite 
pleasant, but the majority were of the discordant character common 
to all these Babblers. 
Genus ACANTHOPTILA Blyth, 1855. 
The genus Acanthoptila was instituted by Blyth for a remark- 
able bird discovered many years previously, characterized by its 
spinous plumage and long, graduated tail. Sharpe originally placed 
this genus in his Crateropodine but Oates, in the Avifauna, 
removed it to the Syluiidew. It has two phases of coloration, in 
one of which the lower part of the head becomes partially white. 
Oates considered the change to be a seasonal one, but there is 
nothing in the British Museum series to show this and I consider 
it is the plumage of the older bird. This acquisition of white is 
found in other Vimaliine birds such as Gampsorhynchus and Gyp- 
sophila. In its general appearance it is very close to Babax and 
Argya. The feathers of the upper plumage and breast have stiff 
shafts which become very spinous when worn; the bill is nearly 
as long as the head and gently curved; the nostrils are long, 
lunar-shaped slits ; the rictal bristles short and weak; the wing 
rounded and 4th primary longest ; tail graduated and much longer 
than wing, and the tarsus very strong and about one-third the 
length of wing. 
