STACHYEH1S. 161 



Iris yellowish white or very pale yellow ; bill, gape, and culmeii 

 dark brown, margins of the upper arid lower mandibles fleshy ; legs 

 and feet fleshy lavender ; claws dusky ; iris of young olive (Lec/ye). 



Length nearly 5'5 ; tail 2 ; wing 2*3 ; tarsus '85 ; bill from 

 gape -7. 



Distribution. Ceylon. 



Habits, <${c. According to Legge this bird breeds in Ceylon in 

 January. The nest is a large shapeless ball of dead leaves and a 

 few twigs, placed in a bramble or some undergrowth three or four 

 feet from the ground. The eggs are white spotted with brownish 

 red over bluish-grey specks, and measure "74 by '56. 



The same author observes that this species frequents dense 

 underwood in parties of six to a dozen, searching for food among 

 the fallen leaves, and that it keeps up a constant little rattle-note. 



168. Rhopocichla bourdilloni. Bourdilloni Babbler. 



Alcippe bourdilloni, Hume, S. F. iv, pp. 399, 485 (1876) ; id. Cat. 

 no. 390 bis ; Bourdillon, S. F. ix, p. 300 ; Sharpe, Cat. B. M. vii, 

 p. 626. 



Coloration. Forehead, crown and nape, lores and cheeks brown; 

 ear-coverts and round the eye blaskish; upper plumage, wings, 

 tail, and sides of the neck fulvous brown ; chin, throat, and breast 

 dull white ; remainder of the lower plumage ferruginous ; under 

 wing-coverts pale fulvous. 



Bill above black, below pale slaty ; legs and feet dull brown ; 

 iris white (Hume Coll.). 



Length about 5-3 ; tail 1*9 ; wing 2*2 ; tarsus '9 ; bill from 

 gape -7. 



Distribution. Known only from My nail in Travancore at an 

 elevation of about 3000 to 4000 feet. 



Genus STACHYRHIS, Hodgs., 1844. 



With the genus Stacliyrliis we enter upon a group of small 

 Timeliine birds which have a slender pointed bill and rather bril- 

 liant plumage. This genus is the only one of the subfamily in 

 which the eggs are known to be unspotted white, and it differs 

 from the allied genus Stachyrhidopsis, in which the eggs are spotted, 

 by having the culmen gently curved. The nostril is covered by a 

 large scale somewhat as in Thringorhina. 



The birds of this genus appear to confine themselves to low trees 

 and bushes, the leaves and flowers of which they search for insects, 

 and frequently their foreheads are powdered with the pollen of 

 flowers. Their notes are described as pleasant. 



S. poliogaster, a species discovered by Davison and named by 

 Hume, from the Malay peninsula, has the sides of the face and the 

 lower plumage grey, and may be discovered in Tenasserim. 



VOL. I. 11 



