234 TIMALIIDJE. 



bill black, yellowish at the nostrils ; legs pale orange-yellow ; 

 claws pinkish ; mouth yellow in winter, black in summer. 



Measurements. Length about 170 to 180 mm. ; wing 65 to 

 70 mm. ; tail about 85 to 90 mm. ; tarsus about 25 mm. ; culmen 

 about 12 mm. 



Distribution. Whole of India and Burma, except those portions 

 noted as the habitat of the next form, South to Tenasserim and 

 extending into Siam and Annam. 



Nidification. In Assam this Babbler breeds principally between 

 the 15th May and 15th July, but in India, farther south, they 

 breed from June to September, whilst Col. Sparrow took them 

 in Trimulgherry in October. The nest is a beautifully built cup 

 or inverted cone of fine soft grass and fibre lined with the same 

 and well bound with cobwebs. It may be placed in a bush, 

 a weed, a clump of grass or in sugar-cane or crops. In Assam 

 they build in the centre of the great seas of sun-grass which run 

 for miles over the undulating plateaus between 1,000 and 8,000 

 feet and are never found elsewhere, but in other parts of India 

 they build in all kinds of scrub- and grass-land and even in 

 gardens. The eggs number three to five and vary greatly in 

 colour. The most common type is pale yellowish or pink 

 in ground-colour, rather densely marked all over with light red 

 speckles and spots or more rarely blotches. Another type has 

 bold smears and blotches of pale pinky- red, reddish brown or 

 deep purple-brown, sometimes with a few irregular streaks and 

 lines and generally with some underlying marks of a dull neutral 

 tint. A third type has a pure white ground with bold blotches 

 of deep purple-brown at the larger end. ]00 eggs average 17*9 x 

 14-9 mm.; the maxima are 20'3 X 16'5 and 20-1 x 16*6 mm., and 

 the minima 16'8 X 15'0 and 17'0 X 13'6 mm. 



Habits. Found at all elevations from the plains up to nearly 

 6,000 feet, but is most common under 2,500 feet. It is not a 

 gregarious bird, but keeps in pairs, wandering about in grass, 

 scrub, secondary growth and even in gardens and the bushes 

 surrounding villages, but never in forest. It clambers about 

 much as the typical Babblers do in the lower growths, but does 

 not feed on the ground and flies better and more freely than 

 they do. It has a sweet note, almost a song, in the breeding 

 season, which it frequently utters from the top of some high 

 piece of grass or other perch elevated above its surroundings. 



(235) Pyctorhis sinensis saturation 

 THE BHUTAN YELLOW-EYED BABBLEK. 



Pyctorhis sinnisis saturatior Ticehurst, Bull. B. O. C., xlii, p. 57 

 (1922) (Bhutan Doars). 



Vernacular names. None recorded. 



