330 TIMALIID®. 
Description.—Male. The lores, sides of forehead and a broad 
band passing through the eyes and ear-coverts round the nape 
black: the whole crown deep slaty; back, scapulars, rump and 
upper tail-coverts chestnut; wing-coverts black ; quills black, all 
but the first two with a patch of slaty near the base, increasing in 
extent inwards and the 3rd to the 6th or 7th primary with a narrow 
edging of the same about the middle of the outer web; most of the 
later quills minutely tipped with white; tail black; lower plumage 
white, the sides of the body boldly barred with black; vent and 
under tail-coverts pale buff. 
Colours of soft parts. Iris brown; bill black, pale leaden-blue 
at gape and base of lower mandible ; legs and feet rich wax-yellow ; 
claws pale yellowish-horny. 
Fig. 61.—Head of C. n. nipalensis. 
Measurements. Length about 180 mm.; wing 90 to 96 mm. ; 
tail about 55 mm.; tarsus about 80 mm.; culmen about 17 mm. 
Female. The crown paler and the band surrounding it choco- 
late-brown instead of black; the back and scapulars reddish brown 
with large oval black spots ; otherwise as in the male. 
Distribution. The Himalayas from Nepal to Eastern Assam, 
North and South of the Brahmaputra, Manipur and Karenni. 
Nidification. Unknown. 
Habits. ound in flocks, above 6,000 feet, in summer, in forest 
where it frequents the higher trees only. In winter it certainly 
wanders down a good deal lower, for I saw it on two or three 
occasions in the north-west of N. Cachar at about 3,000 feet 
during December and January. They were then frequenting the 
higher branches of oak-trees and the huge cotton-trees which 
were scattered about amongst them. They feed both on insects 
and berries and seeds. 
Genus PTERUTHIUS Swains., 1831. 
The genus Pteruthius contains four species and many subspecies 
of a very curious group of birds rather Shrike-like in general out- 
ward appearance but quite unlike any Shrikes in habits and nidifi- 
cation and also in the sexes being dissimilar. Harington (Journal 
B. N. H.S. xxiii, p. 655, 1915) suggests that the proper position 
of this and the preceding genus is somewhere near the Campe- 
