PASSERINE BIRDS OF CEYLON. 97 



Bill, legs, and feet black ; iris reddish-brown in males, 

 brown in females. 



Length about 7-75; wing 3-55; tail 3-55: tarsus -6; 

 bill from gape * 8. 



Distribution. — Found both in the hills, where it is fairly- 

 common, and in the low -country, where it is local. Both this 

 and the next species appear to wander about a good deal, 

 and some birds may be migrants from India, where this species 

 appears to be confined to the Westsrn Ghauts. 



Habits. — May be met with in the tops of trees in hill forests 

 and patana woods. In the low-country i\ usually keeps to the 

 big trees along river banks and round tanks. Out of the 

 breeding season it usually occurs in little troops of one cock 

 and several hens. The nest has been found in Uva in Decem- 

 ber, but the breeding season probably continues throughout 

 the north-east monsoon. The nest is rather a thick-walled 

 little cup composed of the finest twigs and coated externally 

 with cobwebs and lichen. It is generallj^ placed high up in a 

 tree and is glued into a small fork, or on to the top of a slender 

 bough. The eggs, apparently two in number, are of pale sea 

 green, marked with pale yellowish-brown and grajdsh -purple. 

 Average size (of Indian eggs) • 90 hy • 67. 



Pericrocotus peregrinus malabaricus. 



The Small Minivet. 

 Pericrocotus peregrinus (Oates, Vol. I., p. 487; Legge, p. 366). 



Description.— Msle : Forehead, top of head, hind-neck, 

 back, and lesser wing coverts dark ashy-graj^ ; lores, cheeks, 

 ear coverts, chin, and throat black ; rump and upper tail 

 coverts scarlet, with generally a whitish band at the junction 

 with the gray of the back ; the greater wing coverts and wing 

 quills black, with a band of orange red across the inner 

 primaries and the secondaries ; the three central pairs of tail 

 feathers black, the next pair with a broad orange red tip, the 

 outer feathers orange red, except at the base ; breast and 

 flanks scarlet, the hue paling across the abdomen to orange- 

 yellow on the vent and lower tail coverts. 



13 6(17)21 



