22 TIMALIID.®. 
Colours of soft parts. Iris madder-red to deep brown ; orbital 
skin light to dull smalt blue; bill dark plumbeous or brownish blue, 
lower mandible paler; legs, feet and claws very pale greenish or 
yellowish white. 
Measurements. Total length about 140 mm.; wing 56 to 60 mm; 
tail about 50 mm.; tarsus about 20 mm.; culmen about 13 to 14 mm. 
Distribution. From the extreme South of Tenasserim down 
the Malay Peninsula to Borneo and Sumatra. 
Nidification. Nests taken by Davison and others in March and 
April are described as balls of grass or reed-leaves about 6 inches in 
diameter and placed in bushes. The eggs, two or three in number, 
are glossy china-white spotted with reddish all over but most 
numerously at the larger end. In shape they are obtuse ovals. 
Five eggs in my collection average about 16°9 x 13°6 mm. 
Eggs taken by Messrs. Hopwood and Mackenzie are described 
as unspotted white with a bluish tinge. 
Habits. Said to be very common in the evergreen parts of 
Tenasserim and the Malay Peninsula, haunting brushwood, small 
trees and cane-brakes in parties, working the foliage for insects 
much like a Titmouse and uttering a “sharp, metallic roiling 
sound, which it utters chiefly when alarmed, but also at other 
times ” (Davison). 
Genus MIXORNIS Hodgson, 1842. 
The genus J/iworns differs from all other genera of slender- 
billed 7imaliine in having the nostrils oval, exposed and not 
covered by a membrane, or scale, as in the others. Within Indian 
and Burmese limits we have but one species which varies con- 
siderably in different countries, forming subspecies or geographical 
races which are not always easy to define. 
Mixornis rubricapilla. 
Key to Subspecies. 
A. Crown pale fecruginous, stripes on fore- 
neck and breast fairly well developed .. M.r.rubricapilla, p. 273. 
B. Crown more pale brown, less ferruginous, 
stripes on fore-neck and breast very fine. MW. r. minor, p.£ 274. 
C. Crown more chestnut-rufous, stripes on 
fore-neck and breast decidedly heavier... MM. 7. pileata, p.. 274. 
Having examined several hundred specimens of this little bird 
in the British Museum and Tring Museum as well as those in the 
Indian Museum and my own collection, I have come to the con- 
clusion that we cannot recognize more than three races of Mivornis 
as coming within the limits of this work. Rippon’s sulphurea is an 
exact replica of many Assam and Bengal birds and the Southern 
Shan States appears to be about the limit of this form. Northern 
Siam specimens, from which Gyldenstolpe names his M. minor, are 
certainly nearer South and Central Siam forms, as also are specimens. 
from East Central Burma, so all these birds must bear his name. 
