104 PARADOXOKNITHIDjE. 



(89) Conostoma semodium. 

 THE GREAT PABROT-BILL. 



Conostoma eemoeKtu Hod^s.. J. A. S. B., x, p. 857 (1841) (Nepal). 

 Conostoma amodium. Blanf. & Gates, i, p. 61. 



Vernacular names. The Red-billed Jay-Thrush (Jerdon); The 

 Red-billed Crow-Tit (Gates); Lho-rannio-pho (Lepcha). 



Description. Lores arid feathers in front of the eye dark 

 brown; forehead greyish white ; upper plumage olive-brown with 

 a rufous tinge ; outer edges of primaries ashy ; of the secondaries 

 rufous, their tips and the whole of the innermost secondaries 

 ashy ; tail ashy grey, more or less washed with rufous along the 

 middle of the feathers; chin, throat, and sides of the head brown, 

 with a vinous tinge, becoming paler on the rest of the lower 

 plumage. 



Fig. 21. Head of C. cemodium. 



Colours of soft parts. Bill horny or dull orange ; legs pale to 

 plumbeous or slate-grey ; iris brown. 



Measurements. Length about 300 mm. ; wing about 130 to 

 133 mm. ; tail about 140 mm. ; tarsus about 37 mm.; cultnen about 

 20 mm. and from gape 25 mm. 



Distribution. From Nepal, thi-ough Sikkim and the higher 

 ranges of hills of North Assam into Tibet and W. China. 



Nidification. Breeds in Sikkim in May. Hume describes the 

 nests as shallow, almost hemisphere! cups very compactly made of 

 grass and lined with the finest grass-stems. A nest sent to me 

 was similar but deeper in shape, measuring about 130mm. in 

 breadth and about 105mm. in external depth. All the nests 

 were placed in clumps of ringed bamboo at elevations of over 

 10,000 feet, except one sent me which had been built in high 

 reeds. 



The egg is a dull white sparsely spotted, speckled and smudged 

 with yellowish brown and inky purple. The only two eggs known 

 both measure about 27'8 X 20-4 mm. 



Habits. The Great Parrot-Bill is a bird of very high elevations 

 breeding between 10,000 and 12,000 and descending in winter 



