PNOEPYGA. 457 
Colours of soft parts. Iris brown ; bill blackish ; legs brown. 
Measurements. Total length about 100mm.; wing 47 to 51 mm.; 
tail 31 to 35 mm.; tarsus about 20 mm.; culmen about 11 to 
12 mm. 
Distribution. Sikkim only as far as is known at present. 
Nidification. Nothing recorded beyond Hume’s note to the 
effect that it builds ‘‘a deep cup-shaped nest about the roots of 
trees or in a hole in fallen timber; the nest is a dense mass of 
moss and moss roots, lined with the latter. The eggs are spotless 
white.” A nest and four clutches of eggs taken in Sikkim at about 
8,900 feet and sent to me do not agree with this description. The 
nest sent has evidently been egg-shaped and is made of dead leaves, 
fine twigs, bracken and grass, all very decayed and well matted 
together. The lining is very much lke that of the Long-tailed 
Wrens’ but is brown in colour instead of whitish and not quite so 
firmly stuck together. The eggs, two clutches of four and two of 
three, are just like those of Spel@ornis 1. longicaudatus, i. e. pure 
but rather dull white, feebly speckled with reddish-brown and deep 
purple-brown, They measure on an average for twenty eggs 18-1 x 
14:1 mm., and the extremes are 19°9x 14:2 and 18°6x14°5 mm. 
maxima and 17°3 x 14:2 and 17-9 x 13-8 mm. minima. 
These nests were all found in heavy, damp forest and were 
placed on the ground on banks amongst weeds, moss and caladiums. 
They were taken between the 17th May and the 28th June, at 
an elevation of 8,000 feet and over. 
Habits. Nothing recorded. Mr. Masson, who sent me the nest 
and eggs, could only say that they belonged to a small Wren which 
he could never catch on the nest or see quickly enough to shoot 
as it left it. The birds apparently were not common, though they 
were in fair numbers along the ridges above Darjeeling between 
8,000 and 10,000 feet. They were never seen outside the dense, 
damp, evergreen forest. 
Genus PNOEPYGA Hodgson, 1845. 
The genus Pnoepyga contains two species of Wren which are 
characterized by an extremely short tail of six soft feathers, com- 
pletely concealed from view by long and ample rump feathers. 
The wing, bill and feet are very much the same as in Speleornis, 
The sexes differ in the female having the white on the under 
parts replaced by bright fulvous. The young are very dull coloured 
without any of the conspicuous barring and spotting of the adults. 
Key to Species. 
A. Wing well over 55 mm. ............ Pnoepyga squamata, p. 458. 
#B. Wing well under 55 mm............. Pnoepyga pusilla, p. 4 
