76 SPOLIA ZEYLANICA. 



The position of this species is not yet exactly determined. 

 It shows in its plumage and structure affinities with both the 

 Timeliinse and the Warblers. The nest and eggs rather 

 resemble those of a North Indian genus — Trihura — of 

 Warblers, and it is now supposed to be an aberrant species 

 of Warbler. 



Distribution. — Peculiar to Ceylon, and confined to the main 

 hill ranges over about 5,000 feet. 



Habits, d^c. — Fairly common in the dense undergrowth of 

 the forests on the higher hill ranges. It seldom appears in the 

 open, but threads its way under cover with great activity in 

 search of insects and small seeds. 



I once, however, watched a bird come out of the jungle and 

 flit about the bushes in the garden of the Forest bungalow at 

 Pattipola. It was intensely restless, never staying long in 

 one position. Several of its attitudes were those of a Warbler, 

 especially when it perched on a downward-hanging spray with 

 its feet wide apart, the lower leg stretched out, and the upper 

 bent almost double. The call is likened by Legge to the sound 

 " quitze," and is a sharp insect-like note. It also has a 

 rapid little warble. 



The nest has been found by Captain Aldworth and by 

 myself on the edge of the jungles round the Horton Plains in 

 April. My nest was about 3 feet from the ground in a wild 

 box bush, which stood by the side of a path where it ran 

 through a little grassy space in the jungle. It was a fairly 

 massive deep cup of moss, lined inside with carefully woven 

 blades of soft dry grass. It contained two rather incubated 

 eggs. They were oval, and only slightly pointed at the small 

 end. The colour was whitish-i^ink, thickly powdered all over 

 ■with rather deeper purplish markings and with one or two 

 long hair-lines of deep brown at the larger end. Size '90 by 

 •67. 



Orthotomus sutorius sutorius. 

 The Indian Tailor Bird. 



Orthotomus sutorius (Oates, Vol. I., p. 366 ; Legge, p. 517). 



Description. — Forehead and crown rufous, shading into 

 ashy on the nape ; back, scapulars, rump, and upper tail 

 coverts yellowish-green ; wing quills and tail feathers lightish 



