278 TIMALIID A. 
Nidification. The Nilgiri Quaker-Babbler is said to breed from 
January to June, generally 11 May and June, in the hilly country 
from the lowest toot-hills upwards. The nest is a cup of leaves, 
grass and a little moss or lichen and lined with black roots. It 
is usually placed in a bush, 2 to 8 feet from the ground, 
standing in either dense forest or in scrub-jungle. The eggs 
are nearly always two only in number and vary in colour very 
greatly but the majority are of the clouded pink type described 
as one of the types of the Nepal Babbler. Thirty-eight eggs 
average 20°0 x 15°] inm. 
Habits. This Babbler is found from the level of the plains in 
broken country up to some 6,000 feet. In habits it appears to 
agree well with A. p. phayrei described further on. 
(289) Alcippe poioicephala brucei. 
Tur Bombay QuAKER-BABBLER. 
Alcippe brucei Hume, J.A.S.B., xxxix, p. 122 (1870) (Mahaba- 
leshwar). 
Vernacular names. Chit Karuvi (Tel.). 
Description. A larger and much greyer bird than the last ; the 
head and neck paler than in that bird and grading into, not con- 
trasting with, the colour of the back; there is no rufous tinge on 
the rump and upper tail-coverts and the quills and tail-feathers are 
hight brown rather than chestnut. 
Colours of soft parts as in the last. 
Measurements. Wing 72 to 75 mm.; bill 14 to 15 mm. 
Distribution. ‘“* Mahbaleshwar, Western Ghats from Rajkot in 
Khathiawar to Belgaum ; the Central Provinces ; Pachmarhi and 
the Paresnath Hill, Lower Bengal” (Harington). 
Nidification as in the last. Nearly all the eggs I have seen of this 
race have the ground-colour pale salmon, whilst the markings 
consist of smears and blotches of light red and reddish brown, often 
covering the greater part of the surface of the whole egg. Ten 
eggs measure about 19°1 x 14°6 mm. 
Habits do not differ from those of the Nilgiri and the Arrakan 
Quaker-Babblers. 
(£90) Alcippe poioicephala phayrei. 
THE ARRAKAN QUAKER-BABBLER. 
Alecippe phayret Blyth, J. A. S. B., xiv, p. 601 (1845) (Arrakan ; 
Blanf. & Oates, i, p. 158. 
Vernacular names. Dao-pere-gadeba (Cachari). 
Description, The head and neck in this ferm are brownish grey 
gradually changing into the olive-brown of the back; the chin and 
throat are greyish and the rest of the under parts are rufescent 
