PASSERINE BIRDS OF CEYLON. 129 



it is confined to elevations of over about 3,500 feet, and is 

 almost entirely restricted to the Horton Plains, the Nuwara 

 Eliya plateau, Uda Pussellawa, and the Uva hill basin. 



Habits. — Fairly common in and round Nuwara Eliya and 

 on the patanas and bare or rocky hillsides within its range. 

 It usually occurs in pairs, and is not at all shy. The main 

 habits are described in my remarks on the sub-family. The 

 male has quite a pretty little warble. The breeding season 

 is from April to June. The nest is a saucer-shaped pad of 

 grass, roots, and fibres placed in a grassy ledge or a hole in 

 a bank. There are probably three to four eggs of bluish- 

 green with brownish-red markings. Average size (of South 

 Indian eggs) • 77 by '6. 



Sub-family Buticillivse. 

 Bluethroats and Bohins. 



The Ruticillinse connect the Chats with the true Thrushes. 

 They are found mainly in Europe and Asia. Many of them 

 are migratory, but only one migrant species penetrates as 

 far south as Ceylon, and that merely as a rare straggler. 

 Our three resident forms, however, are familiar birds. The 

 members of this sub-family are mainly terrestrial ; the tarsi 

 are long ; the feet are well adapted for running, and the 

 insects on which they feed are picked up from the ground. 

 Like the Chats, they have the habit of frequently cocking 

 the tail and drooping the wings. In one genus — Thamnohia 

 — the tarsus is scutellated in front ; in the rest it is smooth. 

 In all Ceylon species the rictal bristles are weak and the bill 

 fairly slender ; the wing is moderate in length and rounded, 

 being somewhat sharper in Cyanecula than in the other 

 genera ; the tail varies greatly in length and shape. The 

 sexes are dissimilar. 



Key to Ceylon Ruticillinss. 



I. — No white on the tail, which is shorter than the wing. 



(1) Length about 6 ; upper plumage mainly brown ', 

 tail brown and chestnut. 

 Cyanecula suecica suecica (Indian Bluethroat), 

 17 6(17)21 



