288 TIMALIID ©. 
blades of grass but with these are mixed a certain amount of dead 
leaves, fern- and bracken-fronds and weeds; tendrils and roots are 
used to bind the materials together. The lining is of roots or 
bamboo leaves and sometimes a little moss is used inside and 
outside the nest. The sites selected may be either in bamboo 
and scrub orin deep forest. The eggs number two, three or four 
and have the ground-colour aiuything from pure white to pale 
sienna and the markings consist of tiny specks of dark sienna- 
brown, often forming a ring or cap but profusely scattered else- 
where also. A few eggs with white ground have the specks still 
darker and finer. The shape is generally a short oval; pyriform 
eggs not being rare. They are very fragile and have no gloss. 
Sixty eggs average 18:3 x 14°35 mm. 
Habits. This is a still more cheerful, lively little bird than 
those of the genus Scheniparus and when fluttering about a bush 
on which insects are plentiful remind one of Warblers of the 
genus Phylloscopus. They do not, I think, ever feed on the 
ground nor on the other hand do they ascend any height into 
trees but I have seen them in grass and scrub occasionally and 
in bamboos often; when in deep forest, which they most affect, 
they prefer places where there are glades or breaks such as are 
made by streams, jungle-tracks etc. rather than the denser, 
darker portions. They keep up a soft twittering the whole time 
they are feeding. 
(302) Pseudominla castaneiceps castaneiceps. 
THE CHESTNUT-HEADED BABBLER. 
Minla castaneiceps Hodgs., Ind. Rey., 1838, p. 88 (Nepal). 
Stttiparus castaneiceps. Blanf. & Oates, i, p. 172. 
Vernacular names. None recorded. 
Description. Forehead, crown and nape chestnut-brown, the 
feathers of the forehead with broad white streaks, those of the 
crown and nape with pale rufous streaks; a broad line through 
the eye and a narrow moustachial streak black; remainder of 
sides of head white; back, scapulars, rump and smaller wing- 
coverts olive-green tinged with fulvous ; greater wing-coverts and 
primary-coverts black; winglet black on the outer webs, white on 
the inner; quills olive-green, the earlier primaries edged with 
hoary-grey, the latter and the secondaries edged with chestnut at 
the base; innermost secondaries broadly edged with olive-green 
on both webs; below from chin to under tail-coverts pale fulvous- 
white, the sides of breast and body ochraceous; under wing- 
coverts white. 
Colours of soft parts. iris red-brown to crimson; bill, above 
dark horny, the lower mandible dull fleshy, sometimes yellowish, 
especially at base ; legs and feet dingy greenish yellow or yellowish- 
horn. 
