325 



the bill is slender and about as long as the head, with the tip well 

 bent down ; the nostrils are covered by a few long hairs and the 

 rictal bristles are strong; the head is crested, the wing rather long 

 and pointed and the tail perfectly square. The plumage is green. 



(350) Erpornis xantholeuca xantholeuca. 



THE WHITE-BELLIED HERPORNIS. 



Erpoiiiis xantholeuca Hodgs., J. A. S. B., xiii, p. 380 (1844) (Nepal). 

 Herpornis .rantholeuca. Blanf. & Gates, i, p. 219. 



Vernacular names. Dung-pu-plio (Lepcha). 



Description. Whole upper plumage, visible wings and tail clear 

 greenish yellow ; lores, cheeks and lower plumage white, slightly 

 tinged with grey; ear-coverts ashy-white; under wing-coverts 

 pale yellow ; under tail-coverts bright yellow. 



Colours of soft parts. Iris brown or red-brown; bill pale fleshy 

 horn-colour, the edges of the commissure, lower bill and gape 

 brighter, paler fleshy ; mouth and extreme corner of gape yellow; 

 legs and feet flesh-colour or yellowish flesh-colour. 



Fig. 60. Head of E. .r. xantholeuca. 



Measurements. Length about 120mm. ; wing 63 to 70 mm.; 

 tail about 45 mm.; tarsus about 16 mm. ; culmen 10 to 10-5 mm. 



Distribution. The Himalayas from Nepal to Assam, both North 

 and South of the Brahmaputra, Manipur and practically the whole 

 of Burma, Siam and N. Malay Peninsula. 



Nidification. The White-bellied Herpornis breeds from practi- 

 cally the level of the plains up to some 3,000 feet but more often 

 below 1,500 feet than over. The nest is a cradle of fine roots, 

 mixed with fibres and fine grass stems and lined with the latter. 

 It may be pendent in a horizontal fork or just Hanging from a few 

 twigs either of bamboo or some shrub within a few feet of the 

 ground. Hopwood took its nest in Burma in March but in India 

 it breeds in April and May. Its nest is built either in evergreen 

 forest, mixed bamboo and scrub or in bushes in thin cover. The 

 eggs are two or three in number, the ground-colour white or, 

 rarely, creamy-white and the markings consist of sparse blotches 

 of pale reddish, generally confined to the larger end. The texture 

 is faintly glossy and is stout for the size of the eggs ; in shape they 

 are rather long ovals and twenty eggs average 16'7xl2-6 mm., 

 the extremes being 18-8x14-0 and 15-2xl2'0mm. In each of 



