984 TIMALILD®: 
undergrowth and, less often, bamboo-jungle. ‘The eggs number 
from two to four. In colour they are white or creamy-white, 
smudged and blotched with yellowish brown and with a few darker, 
almost black, spots and lines. The breeding season is from 
February to May. Thirty eggs average 20-5 x 15°9 mm. 
Habits. The birds of this genus are more typically Zimaliine in 
their habits than Alcippe, less so than Rhopocichla. They collect 
in small flocks of tive to ten birds, haunt brushwood and low 
forest and feed wholly on insects which they obtain principally on 
the ground. Davison says that their note is like ‘“ chir-chit-chit- 
chit,” constantly repeated. 
(298) Scheniparus dubius mandellii. 
Tue Assam Trt-BABBLER. 
Scheniparus mandella Godw.-Aust., A. M.N.H., (4) xviii, p. 38 
(1876) (Naga Hills) ; Blanf. & Oates, i, p. 169. 
Vernacular names. Dao-chitter (Cachari). 
Description. Differs from the last in having the upper plumage 
more olive and the chin and throat buff like the centre of the 
Fig. 53.— Head of S. d. mandellii. 
breast ; the black supercilium and black markings of the head aud 
upper back more pronounced; and the sides of the neck are 
distinctly striped with black and buff. 
Colours of soft parts as in S.d. dubius. 
Measurements. Wing 56 to 64 mm.; tail about 62 mm.; tarsus 
25 mm.; culmen 12 mm. 
Distribution. Assam, Chin Hills and W. Burma. 
Nidification. This handsome little Babbler breeds in great 
numbers during April, May and June at all elevations above 3,000 
and fully up to 6,000 feet. It may be found in almost any 
kind of cover but prefers forest with an undergrowth of bushes, 
bracken and raspberry vines. The nest is practically invariably 
placed on the ground, generally under the protection of some 
thick patch of cover and always on a more or less sloping bank. 
The materials used are dead leaves mixed with bracken, grass, 
roots etc. and the shape is either a deep, semi-domed cup or a 
