110 CRATEEOPODID^E. 



Legs and feet brown, darker on feet ; bill black ; iris white, 

 bluish white (Hume}. 



Length nearly 10; tail 4'6 ; wing 3 ; tarsus 1*2 ; bill from gape 1. 



Distribution. The Nepal Terai ; the Bhutan and Buxa Doars ; 

 Gowhatty ; Helem, Darrang district, Assam ; Sadiya ; Manipur ; 

 Cachar. 



Habits, fyc. Godwin-Austen, who very rightly associates this bird 

 with the Malacocerci, states that this species is essentially a grass- 

 bird. It goes about in flocks of a dozen or so, flying through the 

 grass one after another in a scattered line, and never abiding long 

 in one place. Hume, who found it to be common in Manipur 

 about the capital and the Logtak lake, says that it occurs about the 

 ditches with their high grass hedgerows. Except, however, in the 

 early mornings, it clings closely to the grass, showing itself but 

 little and not being easy to shoot. 



Genus CEATEEOPUS, Swains., 1831. 



The genus Crateropus differs from Arc/yet in its shorter tail, 

 which is about equal in length to the wing, and in its stouter bill. 

 The tail is also much less graduated, the outer feathers being about 

 two thirds the entire length of the tail. In habits the two genera 

 are very similar, as also in their mode of nidification and the colour 

 of the egg. 



Key to the Species. 



a. Throat cinereous mottled with pale brown; 



breast fulvous ashy C. canorus, p. 110. 



b. Throat and breast dark brown or black with 



ashy margins. 



a'. Tail ashy and brown ; primaries edged paler. 

 a". Ear-coverts blackish, strikingly different 



to the rest of the head C. griseus, p. 112. 



b' 1 . Ear-coverts of the same colour as the 



rest of the head C. striatus, p. 112. 



b'. Tail rufous ; primaries without paler edges. 



c". Throat and breast mottled with brown. . C. somervillii, p. 113. 

 d". Throat and breast uniformly rufous. ... C, rufescens, p. 114. 



c. Throat faint rufous, breast dark rufous C. cinereifrons, p. 114. 



11 0. Crateropus canorus. The Jungle Babbler. 



Turdus canorus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i, p. 293 (1766). 

 Pastor terricolor, Hodgs. J. A. S. B. v, p. 771 (1836). 

 Malacocercus bengalensis, Blyth, Cat. p. 140 (1849). 

 Malacocercus canorus (.), Horsf. fy M. Cat. i, p. 220. 

 Malacocercus orientalis, Jerd. III. Ind. Orn. text to pi. 19 (1847). 

 Malacocercus malabaricus, Jerd. 111. Ind. Orn. text to pi. 19 (1847) ; 



id. B. L ii, p. 62 ; Hume. N. & E. p. 272 ; id. Cat, no. 434 ; 



Damson, S. F. x, p. 381 ; Barnes, Birds Bom. p. 180. 



