252 DIC/EID/E. 



Whole upper plumage and lesser wing coverts ashy brown with a slight 

 olive tinge on the rump and upper tail coverts ; quills brown, externally edged 

 with olive ; median and greater series of coverts the same ; tail blackish, 

 edged with green on the outer webs of the feathers and a bar of white on the 

 two outermost ; sides of face and ear coverts ashy brown ; cheeks and under 

 surface of the body greyish white with a faint tinge of yellowish; foreneck 

 and breast with indistinct dusky stripes ; chin and throat yellowish white ; an 

 indistinct or obscure line runs down either side of the throat from the base of 

 the lower mandible to the breast ; sides of the body, flanks and thighs washed 

 with ashy brown ; under tail coverts white ; under wing coverts and 

 axillaries white. Bill plumbeous, blackish at tip j iris orange yellow ; legs 

 dark plumbeous. 



Length. $6 to 4 inches; wing 2*3 to 2'4; tail 1-25 to 1*3; tarsus O'6; 

 culmen 0-35. 



Hal. Ceylon, and the whole of India, except the drier parts up to the 

 Himalayas, occurring in the N.-W. portion of the range, and in Nepaul 

 extending to Tenasserim. Jerdon found it on the Malabar Coast and Ceylon, 

 most commonly in jungly districts. He procured it at Goomsoor, on the 

 Eastern Ghauts and in the Deccan. Blyth got it in the Midnapoor jungles, 

 while in Pegu and Tenasserim and the hill tracts of Bengal it is said to be 

 common. It has been recorded from Darjeeling, the N.-W. Himalayas, Maun- 

 bhoom, Madras, Jhansi (Bundelkund), Bangalore, Mirzapore and Ram- 

 nuggur. 



It breeds from the middle of February to the end of May, according 

 to the locality, making a nest of various materials, but small in shape 

 and size ; a full-bottomed purse-like bag, which is hung from a small twig, 

 and has the aperture near to the top. The number of eggs is 2 3, varying 

 in size and shape, elongated ovals, white in colour, and marked with reddish 

 brown. 



762. Prionochilus modestus, Hume, Str. F. 1875, p. 298; 



id. and Dav., Str. F. 1878, p. 200; Hume, Str. F. 1879, pp. 56, 90; 

 JBingham, Str. F. ix. p. 171 ; Hume, Str. F. x. p. 198, note ; Oates, B. Br. 

 Burm. i. p. 340 ; Sharpe, Cat. B. Br. Mus. x. p. 74. HUME'S FLOWER- 

 PECKER. 



Whole upper plumage dark olive green, in some lighter or brighter, 

 clearer on the lower back, rump and upper tail coverts ; head like the back ; 

 sides of face and ear coverts pale greenish olive ; the lores more ashy, also 

 the sides of the neck ; cheeks ashy white ; a narrow ill-defined stripe of 

 olivaceous grey runs down either side of the throat from the base of the lower 

 mandible ; throat and under surface of the body white, washed with ashy on 

 the foreneck and breast, which are streaked with ashy brown ; sides of the 

 body and flanks pale ashy brown, washed with olive ; wing coverts like the 



