60 CORVJD.T. 



Bill dusky bluish ; feet plumbeous ; iris brick-red (Jerdon). 



Length about 4-5; tail 1-9; wing 2-7; tarsus '75; bill from 

 gape '45. 



Distribution. The Himalayas from Sikhim to Dharmsala. I have 

 seen no specimen from any place north of this latter and can find 

 no grounds for believing that the species occurs in Kashmir as 

 suggested by Jerdon on the evidence afforded by Adams. Blanford 

 found it in Sikhim at elevations of from 8000 to 13,000 feet. It 

 extends into the mountainous parts of China. 



Subfamily PARADOXORNITHIN^E. 



The Crow-Tits have undoubted close affinities with the Tits and 

 through them with the Crows, but they form a very isolated group 

 in some respects, all of them being restricted to the mountains 

 and hills of Northern and Eastern India and some of the mountain- 

 ranges of China. 



The position of these birds has been much disputed, but looking 

 to the facts that they have ten primaries, that the young are iden- 

 tical in plumage with the adult, and that the nostrils are completely 

 hidden by stiff bristles, their location with the Crows and Tits seems 

 the proper course to adopt. 



The three species regarding the nidification of which anything 

 is known construct cup-shaped nests in trees and lay eggs which 

 are marked with yellowish brown and purple. 



The plumage of all the species is copious and soft, and they have 

 a very ample crest, not of great length, but very thick. With one 

 exception the bills of all the genera are extremely deep, the depth 

 being greater than the length of the bill. The culinen is very 

 rounded transversely, and the margins of the mandibles in most of 

 the species are curiously sinuated. 



Their food, judging from what Mr. Gammie tells us, is not grain 

 and seeds but insects, and consequently there is nothing anomalous 

 in their habits in this respect as was at one time thought to be the 

 case. 



Key to the Genera. 



a. Tail longer than wing. 



'. Tail less graduated ; the outermost pair of 



feathers fully three quarters length of tail. CONOSTOMA, p. 60. 

 b'. Tail more graduated j the outermost pair 

 of feathers not exceeding two thirds 

 length of tail. 



a". Height of -bill greater than its length ; 



commissure with deep sigmoid curve . . PARADOXORNIS, p. 61. 



b" . Height of bill not greater than its 

 length ; commissure with a slight sig- 

 moid curve SUTHORA, p. 63. 



b. Tail equal to or shorter than wing SCJEOBHYNCHUS, p. 68. 



Genus CONOSTOMA, Hodgs., 1841. 

 The genus Conostoma contains only one species, the largest 



