304 TIMALIIDA. 
bases and black bars; inner secondaries silky-brown, narrowly 
barred with black; outer tail-feathers brown, barred with black 
and tipped with white ; the middle pair reddish brown, obsoletely 
barred and the intervening ones gradually changing from the 
one to the other; throat and upper breast pinkish-fulvous ; 
remainder of lower plumage fulvous, the centre of the abdomen 
whitish and the under tail-coverts tipped with white. 
Colours of soft parts. Iris brown or reddish brown; biil pale 
horny-brown, darker on culmen, paler on gonys; legs and feet 
pale sienna or pale brown. 
Measurements. Total length about 220 to 230 mm.; wing 80 to 
85 mm.; tail about 105 to 115 mm.; tarsus about 28 mm.; culmen 
abont 15mm. 
Distribution. Nepal, Sikkim and Dafla Hills. 
Nidification. The Nepal Bar-wing breeds between 4,000 and 
8,000 feet in May and June, making a compact cup-shaped nest of 
grass, leaves and bamboo leaves mixed with roots and tendrils and 
lined with finer roots and rhizomorph. Outside there is always 
a certain amount of moss and often a great deal, whilst in some 
instances this material is largely used in the nest itself. It 
measures between 4 and 6 inches in diameter and is almost 
as deep as wide, though occasionally a more shallow-shaped nest 
may be taken. It is placed in saplings, small trees or high 
bushes 10 to 25 feet from the ground and most often in fairly 
dense forest. The eggs number two or three, very rarely four, 
and are a pale blue-green in colour with rather smeary lines, 
blotches and smudges of reddish brown with secondary markings 
of pale lilac-grey. The texture is fine but not very glossy, the 
shape an obtuse oval and twenty-five eggs average 22: ‘8X 17-5 mm. 
in measurement. 
Habits. In habits these birds differ little from those of the genus 
Leioptila. Hume remarks that they go about in small parties 
and are quite tree-birds, clambering about and poking into every 
hole and cranny and foraging about much like Tits in the huge 
bunches of orchids and other parasites. They are rather noisy 
birds but most of their notes are mellow and pleasant. They are 
mainly insectivorous in their diet, perhaps wholly so. 
(322) Actinodura egertoni khasiana. 
Tae SHittone Bar-wina, 
Actinodura khasiana Godw.-Aust., J. A. 8. B., xv, pt. ii, p. 76 (1876) 
(Shillong). 
Vernacular names. None recorded. 
Description. Differs from the last bird in the lighter crown, the. 
rufous of the forehead is paler and does not extend on to the 
crown as it does in that bird; the back, rump and upper tail- 
