256 XIMALIID^E. 



dark rufescent brown, with very distinct fulvous shaft-stripes ; 

 the feathers of the back with the inner webs black and the outer 

 webs brown and with pale fulvous shafts; rump, upper tail-coverts 

 and tail plain rufescent ; wing-coverts and the outer webs of the 

 quills rufous-brown, the former with pale shafts ; lores fulvous ; 

 ear-coverts rufous-ashy with paler shafts; cheeks mixed black and 

 fulvous, with a black line above; chin fulvous-white; throat, 

 breast and abdomen rufescent brown, with large pale fulvous shaft- 

 streaks ; sides of body and thighs plain rufescent brown ; vent 

 and under tail-coverts ferruginous. 



Colours of soft parts. Iris light red-brown ; upper mandible 

 very dark horny, blackish at the base, paler at the tip ; gape and 

 edge of lower mandible blackish, remainder pale horny ; legs pale 

 livid fleshy with no tinge of red but the tarsi tinted brown, the 

 soles, claw and joints very pale. 



Fig. 46. Head of B. malacoptilus. 



Measurements. Total length about 125 to 130 mm.; wing 57 

 to 60 mm.: tail about 25 mm.; tarsus about 23 mm.; culmen 

 about 21 to 24 mm. 



Distribution. Sikkim to E. Assam North and South of the 

 Brahmaputra ; Manipur and Looshai. 



Nidiflcation. This Babbler breeds in the hills both North and 

 South of the Brahmaputra throughout Assam from 4,000 feet up- 

 wards, and in the extreme East, nearer the snowy mountains, down to 

 3,000 feet. It breeds in much the same sort of country as Turdin- 

 ulus but affects more open forest and nests may be found, though 

 rarely, in scrub-jungle or deserted, overgrown, cultivation. The 

 nest is a large domed affair, measuring 8 or 9 inches in height by 

 5 to 6| in breadth, the entrance, which is near the top, measuring 

 about 2 inches across. It is made of dead leaves, bracken fronds, 

 grass, sometimes a little moss, and lined with dead leaves only. 

 It is always placed on the ground and nearly always amongst the 

 roots of bushes or at the foot of some tree. The breeding season 

 lasts from the end of April to July. The eggs are three or four in 

 number, rarely five, pinkish white to pale salmon-pink in ground- 

 colour and marked with spots and small blotches of reddish brown 

 and paler smears of the same with here and there lines and scriggles 

 of deep red-brown. The texture is fragile and practically gloss- 

 less, the shape an obtuse oval and thirty eggs average in size 

 21-2x15-5 mm. 



Habits. In habits this little bird is more of a Babbler and less of 



