296 TIMALIID®. 
Habits. This beautiful Sibia is not uncommon from 38,000 to 
8,000 feet, frequenting forests in small parties or in pairs and 
feeding largely on the insects which are found in flowering trees, 
such as the cotton-tree etc. They are not noisy birds but 
frequently utter a note which Jerdon terms “a sort of whistling 
eall,” shrill but not unpleasant. According to Stevens it is found 
in the foot-hills in Lakhimpur in January and February in flocks 
numbering as many as twenty. 
Genus LEIOPTILA Blyth, 1847. 
Differs chiefly from Siééa in its much shorter tail; this is longer 
than the wing and well graduated, the outermost feather reaching 
a little beyond the middie of the tail. The rictal bristles are a 
little longer than in Sibia and there is a full crest in all the 
species. 
Key to Species and Subspecies. 
A. Crown of head black or brown. 
a, Median pair of tail-feathers with a 
subterminal black band. 
a’. Rumpandupper tail-covertsrufous. [p. 296. 
a’. Darker ; breast rufous........ LL. capistrata capistrata, 
6". Paler; breast pale pinkish- 
PULOUS 2yeiote Soe ore eels Lc. pallida, p. 298. 
6’. Rump and upper tail-coverts ashy. ZL. gracilis, p. 298. 
b. Median pair of tail-feathers uniform 
brown or black with a white tip. 
c'. Rump and upper tail-coverts choco- 
late-brown. 
c'', Inner secondaries black. 
a”, Upper plumage brownish 
Dlaeliv ss stashed pecreaetye aes fe LL. m. melanoleuca, p. 299. 
b'’. Upper plumage deeper black. LZ. m. radcliffe’, p. 300. 
d", Inner secondaries chiefly chest- 
PVE raetey a ehveueNe ie tep ates eee es ctw L. eastanoptera, p. 300. 
d'. Rump chestnut. 
e'’". Wing-coverts margined with 
ashy and chestnut. [p. 500. 
ce’. Chestnut of back paler .... LZ. annectens annectens, 
d'’. Chestnut of back darker.... Z. a. saturata, p. 801. 
J'. Wing-coverts entirely black .. LZ. a. davisoni, p. 302. 
B. Crown of head bluish-grey like the 
mpper back o/s; . cc sweeieeeinens as « L.. pulchella pulchella, p. 302. 
(311) Leioptila capistrata capistrata. 
THE BLACK-HEADED SIBIA. 
Cinclosoma capistratum Vigors, P.Z.S8., 1831, p. 56 (Himalayas) 
(Darjiling). 
Lioptila capistrata. Blanf. & Oates, i, p. 196. 
Vernacular names. Sambriak-pho (Lepcha) ; Sesigona (Bhut.); 
Sibya (Nep.). 
