ZOSTEROPS. 243 



a low twitter, searching for insects among the leaves. It breeds throughout 

 India, sparingly in the hotter parts, and abundantly in the Neilgherries and 

 other ranges of the Peninsula to their very summit, and in the Himalayas to an 

 elevation of 5,000 or 6,000 feet. The breeding season lasts from January to 

 September ; sometimes they have two broods. The nest is a soft delicate little 

 cup, sometimes very shallow and at other times deep, and, as a rule, suspended 

 between two twigs.' The materials of which it is made are various, as fine 

 grasses, grass roots, fibres, thread, floss-silk and cobwebs. The eggs are 

 usually two in number, and pale blue in colour, and vary in length from 

 o -5 3 to 07 and in breadth from 0*42 to 0-58. 



Mr. A. G. Cardew's experience in the Neilgherries is that out of a dozen 

 nests or more at least five-sixths were built in the common Berberis aristota. 

 The eggs, always two, are a delicate blue with a greenish tinge. Breeds 

 February April. It is known as Pa-Chit-Tam or Flower-Small-Bird. 



749. Zosterops aurei venter, Hume, Str. F, 1878, p. 519; 



Nicholson, Ibis, 1880, p. 152; Gadow, Cat. B. Br. Mus. ix. p. 163. Zosterops 

 lateralis (nee Lath.}, HartL, J. F. O. 1865, p. 15 (ex. Temm. MSS.); 

 Tweed., Ibis, 1877, p. 303; Hume and Dav., Str. F. 1878, i. p. 452; Hume, 

 Str. F. 1879, pp. 65, 104, 497. Zosterops Buxtoni, Nicholson, Ibis, 1879, 

 p. i67 ; Oates, B Br. Burnt, i. p. 346. TEMMINCK'S WHITE-EYED TIT. 



Similar to Z. palpebrosa, but differing in having the tail black but without 

 any greenish yellow margins, in being smaller and greener above and having a 

 very black wing ; sides of the breast grey ; breast and abdomen, also the chin 

 and throat, washed with bright yellow. Bill black ; legs and feet slaty blue ; 

 iris grey. 



Length. 3-4 inches; wing 1-95; tail ri; tarsus 0*5 5 ; culmen 0*45. 

 Hab. Southern Tenasserim near Tavoy, w/here Mr. Davison obtained it. 

 It also occurs down the Malayan Peninsula to Sumatra, Java and Timor. 



750. Zosterops Siamensis, Biyth, Ibis, 1867, p. 34; Wald., 



Ibis, 1876, p. 350, pi. 10, fig. I; Hume and Dav., Str. F. 1878, p. 375; 

 Hume, Str. F. 1879, p. 104; Oates, B. Br. Sunn. i. p. 343 ; id., Str. F. x. 

 p. 228 ; Gadow, Cat. B. Br. Mus. ix. p. 180. Zosterops palpebrosa (nee. T.), 

 Tickell, MSS. teste Walden, Ibis, 1876, p. 350. Zosterops Austeni, Wald. in 

 Elyth, B. Burm. p. in; Hume and Dav., Str. F. 1878, p. 376; Hume, 

 Str. F. 1879, p. 104. The SIAMESE WHITE-EYED TIT. 



Lores and a small patch under the eye black, a circle of feathers round the 

 eye white ; general colour olive yellow, brightest on the under surface of the 

 body, duller on the mantle, back, scapulars and lesser wing coverts ; median 

 and greater coverts margined with deep olive yellow ; bastard wing and 

 primary coverts dusky, the former tipped and the latter edged with yellow ; quills 

 dusky brown, externally edged with olive yellow ; rump and upper tail coverts 

 brighter yellow than the back ; tail dusky, margined externally with olive 



