334 TIMALIID^E. 



Description. Male. Upper plumage greenish yellow ; tail, 

 central tail-feathers green, tipped black, next four pairs black 

 tipped white, these white tips increasing in size outwardly until 

 the outermost are wholly white ; a white ring round the eye ; ear T 

 coverts yellow ; a black spot behind the ear-coverts ; a broad 

 supercilium bluish white ; nape bluish-ashy ; lores and lines above 

 and below the eye meeting behind it black ; chin, throat and 

 upper breast deep chestnut; remaining lower plumage bright yellow. 

 Wings brown, the feathers edged wirh bluish grey and the inner 

 secondaries wholly of this colour and all the quills but a few of the 

 first primaries tipped with white; lesser wing-coverts black edged 

 with grey ; greater coverts black, broadly tipped with white ; 

 primary-coverts and winglet black. 



Colours of soft parts. Iris hazel or light brown ; bill plumbeous ; 

 legs and feet fleshy-white. 



Measurements. Length about 120 mm. ; wing 60 to 63 mm. ; 

 tail about 45 to 46 mm. ; tarsus about 20 mm. ; culmen about 

 7 to 8 mm. 



Female. Differs from the male in having salmon- pink tips to 

 the wing instead of white, the chestnut of the throat not reaching 

 the breast, and in having the lores and lines through the eyes brown 

 and not black. 



The young are like the female but the upper plumage is olive- 

 brown and the lower plumage is yellowish white ; the nape is con- 

 colorous with the back and there are no black lines through the eyes. 



Distribution. The Himalayas from Nepal to E. Assam both 

 North and South of the Brahmaputra ; Manipur. 



Nidification. This beautiful little Babbler breeds from 4,000 feet 

 upwards in the hills of IS. Assam and according to Hodgson at 

 6,000 or 7,000 feet in Nepal. It makes a lovely little cradle-like 

 nest, of fine roots, a little moss and lichen, occasionally an odd twig 

 or leaf or two, scantily lined with rhizomorph from a fungus or 

 very fine moss roots. It may be placed either in a horizontal fork 

 or pendent between two or more small twigs and at any height 

 from the ground from 5 to 15 feet, in bush or small sapling. 

 They breed from the middle of April to the middle of June, laying 

 four or five, or even six eggs. These are of two types a delicate 

 pinky-lilac with fine specks and tiny blotches of dark purple, mostly 

 confined to the larger end, or a pale pink with similar marks of 

 pale reddish brown with others underlying of pale lilac and neutral 

 tint. The shape is a regular or rather broad oval and the texture 

 soft and fine, glossless and rather fragile. Thirty-four eggs 

 average 17'9X13'5 mm. and the extremes are 19'1 X 14*4 mm. and 

 16-8 X 13-0 mm. and 17'4 x 12'6 min. 



Habits. This little bird seems to be invariably found in pairs 

 only, frequenting both lofty trees and the higher bushes and 

 brushwood. It is essentially a forest bird but at the same time 

 keeps to the more open parts and to the vicinity of jungle-tracks, 



