ACANTHOPTILA. 203 



which differentiates it from caudata; but their differences are 

 bridged over by the Large Eufous Babbler, which has an inter- 

 mediate shaped bill which is partly black and has the feathers of 

 the forehead with the shafts distinctly stiff and bare at the tips. 

 Blyth placed both submfa and longirostns in a separate genus, 

 Layardia, but in view of the gradation in degree in the character- 

 istics denning them, I keep them altogether under Argya. 



Distribution. The Nepal Terai, Bhutan and Buxa Duars, the 

 Terai at the foot of the Himalayas, North of the Brahmaputra to 

 Sadiya and the grass plateaus of the Chills South of that river to 

 Manipur and Chittagong. 



Nidification. This Babbler breeds not uncommonly on the grass 

 plateaus in the Khasia Hills during May and June, making a cup- 

 shaped nest of grass, lined with grass stems and placed in amongst 

 grass or reeds, a bush or tangle of brambles, or even on an old 

 stump or a broken-down wall or bank. The eggs number three 

 or four, but are a rather paler blue than are the eggs of most of 

 those of the genera Argya or Turdoides though quite similar in 

 shape and texture. Twenty-one eggs average about 21 '5 x 

 16-7 mm. 



Habits. These are of the gregarious, noisy and restless nature 

 of the rest of the group. Hume, in Manipur, and myself, in the 

 Khasia Hills, found them nearly always in the long grass covering 

 wide extents of hill and valley, where they fed both on the ground 

 and on the grass and reeds. Several of their notes were quite 

 pleasant, but the majority were of the discordant character common 

 to all these Babblers. 



Genus ACANTHOPTILA Blyth, 1855. 



The genus Acanthoptila was instituted by Blyth for a remark- 

 able bird discovered many years previously, characterized by its 

 spinous plumage and long, graduated tail. Sharpe originally placed 

 this genus in his Crateropodince but Gates, in the Avifauna, 

 removed it to the Sylviidce. It has two phases of coloration, in 

 one of which the lower part of the head becomes partially white. 

 Gates considered the change to be a seasonal one, but there is 

 nothing in the British Museum series to show this and I consider 

 it is the plumage of the older bird. This acquisition of white is 

 found in other Timaliine birds such as GampsorhyncTius and Gyp- 

 sophila. In its general appearance it is very close to Babax and 

 Argya. The feathers of the upper plumage and breast have stiff 

 shafts which become very spinous when worn ; the bill is nearly 

 as long as the head and gently curved ; the nostrils are long, 

 lunar-shaped slits ; the rictal bristles short and weak ; the wing 

 rounded and 4th primary longest ; tail graduated and much longer 

 than wing, and the tarsus verv strong and about one-third the 

 length of wing. 



