64 TIMELIID.-E. 



493. Thamnobia fulicata (Lin.}, J*rd. Mad. Joum. x. p. 264 ; 



Blyth, J. A. S. B. xvi. p. 139; Layard, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. xii. p. 266; 

 Jerd. B. Ind. ii. p. I2J, No. 419 ; Hume, Nests and -Eggs, Ind. B. p. 307 ; 

 Fairbank, Str. F. 1876, p. 459; Hume, Sir. F. 1877, p. 406; id. Str.F. 1878, 

 ii. p. 55; Ball t. c. p. 216; Legge, B. Ceylon, p. 440. The BROWN-BACKED 

 INDIAN ROBIN. 



Above glossy blue black ; wings with a large white spot formed by the lesser 

 wing coverts; median and greater coverts white, tipped with glossy blue 

 black ; primary coverts and quills brown, margined externally with blue black ; 

 lores, sides of the face and under surface of body glossy blue black ; lower 

 abdomen and under tail coverts bright chestnut. Bill, legs and feet black ; 

 irides brown. 



Length. 6 to 6-8 inches ; wings 2-5 to 27; tail 275 ; tarsus i'O; culmen 

 055- 



The female is larger and dusky brown, more sooty on the back and rump, 

 the white shoulder patch is wanting, and the upper tail coverts are blue black ; 

 under tail coverts chestnut ; feathers round the eye fulvous ; cheeks and under 

 surface of the body ashy brown, darker on the abdomen, sides of the body and 

 flanks. 



The young are entirely sooty brown with paler margins to the feathers ; under 

 tail coverts ferruginous. 



Hab. Central, Southern and Western India ; also Ceylon. 



The Indian Robin affects villages, and their neighborhood, chiefly ruins of 

 old houses and mud-walls ; also rocky and stony situations. It is usually seen in 

 pairs, briskly hopping about on the ground or flitting from a branch to the 

 ground, or vice versd, or from one large boulder to another, continually jerking 

 its tail upwards on to the back of its head. It breeds from February to May, 

 building its nest among rocks, in mud walls, in roofs of houses, or under 

 tussocks of grass. 



The nest is a neat structure of grass, roots and hair. The eggs are round 

 ovals, moderately glossed, and of a greyish white or pale bluish white ground, 

 thinly sprinkled here and there, and in some all over with spots and specks of 

 pale yellowish brown. Size 0-68 to 076 inch x o'55 to O 56. 



494. Thamnobia cambaiensis (Lath.}, Biyth, J. A. S. B. xvi. 



p. 139 ; Jerd. B. Ind. ii. p. 122; Beavan, Ibis, 1867, p. 444 ; Blanf. J. A. 

 S. B. xl. p. 273 ; Hume, Nests and Eggs, Ind. B. p. 309 ; Ball, Str. F. 1874, 

 p. 412; 1875, p. 206; Butler, Str.F. 1875^.474; Hume, t. c. p. 474 ; Ball, 

 Str. F. 1878, p. 216; Hume, Str. F. 1879, p. 99; Vidal, Str. F. 1880, p. 66; 

 Sharpe, Cat. B. Br. Mus. vii. p. 55 ; Murray, Hdbk. Zool. &c., Sind,p. US ; 

 id. Vert. Zool. Sind, p. 138. The BROWN-BACKED INDIAN ROBIN. 



