294 TIMALIID®. 
neutral tint, principally disposed as a ring round the larger end. 
They measure about 17'-4x133mm. Mr. Stevens’s nests were 
taken on the 29th May and 3rd June at about 9,000 feet. 
Habits. Stevens found them in pairs haunting shrubs in dense 
forest between 6,000 and 9,000 feet elevation. 
Subfamily SIBIIN Ai*. 
This subfamily differs trom the Zimaliine in having longer 
wings and comparatively shorter, weaker tarsi and feet. Together 
with these features they have different habits, as one would have 
expected. They are strictly arboreal, seldom, if ever, feeding on 
the ground, nor do they scramble and climb about the under- 
growth but hop from one branch to another, take easily to flight, 
and are not nearly so noisy as the last group of birds. 
The sexes are alike in plumage and often brightly coloured. 
This subfamily remains much as in Blanford and Oates, but the 
genus Zosterops is removed en bloc to a family by itself, Zosteropide 
of Sharpe. 
The genus Actinodura I retain in this subfamily with some 
doubt, as in many ways it approaches the previous subfamily, 
especially in its nidification, but on the whole it appears to be 
properly placed where it is. 
Key to Genera. 
A. Tail nearly twice the length of wing........ Srpia, p. 295. 
B. Tail and wing not differing much in length. 
a. Tail-feathers graduated. 
a. All the tail-feathers graduated. 
a’. Tail longer than wing; the outer 
tail-feathers falling short of tip of 
tail by a distance equal to length 
of tarsus. 
a’, Wings not barred .......... .... LEIopTiua, p. 296. 
Oe Wangs barred ace, 302 ote oat ACTINODURA, p. 8035. 
b". Tail not longer than wing; the outer 
tail-feathers falling short of the tip of 
tail by less than the length of tarsus. 
vr 
ce". Nostrils not overhung by hairs; 
wanes barred: tem see). of. cee Txops, p. 307. 
d'". Nostrils overhung by hairs and 
wings not barred ........... ... STAPHIDIA, p. 309. 
* The subfamily Brachypterygine does not belong to the Timaliide at all. 
Oates realized their close connection with the Turdide but placed thein in his 
Crateropodide on the ground that the plumage of the young was like that of 
the parent, whereas it has been proved that in Larvivora, Brachypteryx and 
Drymochares all have spotted young. The genera Myiophoneus and Arrenga 
are true Thrushes; Klaphrornis appears to be a Warbler somewhere near 
Tribura ; Tesia and Oligura are Wrens, Troglodytide ; and the other genera 
short-winged Chats which may be retained in a subfamily, Brachypterygine, 
in the Zurdide. All these genera will be found in their appropriate places 
in future volumes, 
