CRATEEOPTJS. Ill 



Malacocercus terricolor (Hodys.), Jerd. B. I. ii, p. 50 ; Hume, N. 8f 

 E. p. 2G'J ; id. 8. F. i, p. 180; Cripps, S. F. vii, p. 278 ; Ilium; Cat. 

 no. 4o_? ; Barncx, Birds Bom. p. 179; Hume. 8. F. xi, p. 174. 



Crateropus cnnorus (Linn.}, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. vii, p. 478 ; Oates m 

 Humes N. Sf E. 2nd e<L i, p. 74. 



The^Benf/al Bulkier, Jerd. ; The Jungle Babbler, Jerd. ; Chatarhia, 

 Brn^r. ; l\>n<jiia-maina, Hind, in the Upper Provs. ; Sat bhai, Janyli-khyr, 

 Ghonyhai, Hind. ; Pedda sida, Tel. 



Coloration. Upper plumage, coverts, and tertiaries pale brown, 

 cinereous on the head and rump, slightly fulvous on the upper 

 tail-coverts, the back with dark brown streaks and whitish shaft- 

 stripes ; tail brown, paler near the base and darker towards the 

 end, which is tipped white and cross-rayed; wings dark brown, 

 edged with ashy on the outer webs ; lores whitish witb a narrow 

 black line above them ; sides of the head like the crown ; chin and 



Fig. 30. Head of C. canorus. 



throat cinereous, faintly cross-barred darker; breast fulvous ashy 

 with whitish shafts ; abdomen, vent, and under tail-coverts fulvous, 

 the sides tinged with brown, and with faint-white shafts. 



Iris yellowish white ; orbital skin pale yellow ; legs and claxvs 

 fleshy yellow (Crippt). 



Length about 10 ; tail 4*3 ; wing 4-2; tarsus 1/3; bill from 

 gape 1-2. 



It is impossible for any description to cover all the changes of 

 colour which this bird undergoes throughout the year from the 

 fresh moult to the time when the feathers get worn down. The 

 chief point to note about this species is that the chin and throat are 

 pale with no bars or marks of black or dark brown, as in the others. 

 After carefully examining a very large series of this Babbler from 

 every part of India that it inhabits, I am unable to find that there 

 is more than one species or even race. Jerdon recognized two 

 species and he differentiated them precisely by those characters 

 which are continually varying according as the plumage is fresh or 

 old. He states also that the bill of C. terricolor, the northern race, 

 is horny brown, but I find that this colour is the exception. Hume 

 notes on the label of a Punjab bird that the bill was fleshy white, 

 and of a Mount-Abu bird that it was whitish, and Bingham in the 

 same way states that a Delhi bird had it yellowish white. 



Distribution. The whole of India from Sind to the extreme east 

 of Assam, and from the Himalayas down to the extreme south of 



