SALPORNIS. 333 



347. Salpornis spilonota. The Spotted-Grey Creeper. 



Certhia spilonota, Frankl. P. Z. S. 1831, p. 121. 



Salporuis spilonota (FrankL), Jcrd. B. 1. i, p. 382 ; Blanf. J. A. S. B. 



xxxviii, p. 1 70 ; A dam, S. F. i, p. 375 ; Sail, S. F. ii, p. 397 ; 

 . Hume, Cat. no. 246 ; Davidson, S. F. x, p. 300 ; Gadow, Cat. ILM. 



viii, p. 330 ; Barnes, Birds Bom. p. 139 ; Oates in Hume's N.fyE. 



2nd ed. i, p. 220. 



Fig. 103. Head of S. spilonota. 



Coloration. Lores and a line behind the eye black ; above these 

 a broad white supercilium ; ear-coverts, cheeks, chin, and throat 

 white ; crown ashy brown streaked with white ; the whole upper 

 plumage and wing-coverts black spotted with white; quills dark 

 brown, spotted with white on both webs and partially barred with 

 blackish ; tail black, barred with white, the bars interrupted at the 

 shaft, and the middle feathers ashy down the middle; lower 

 plumage pale fulvous barred with black. 



The young appear to resemble the adults. 



Legs and feet blackish plumbeous ; bill blackish, light below ; 

 iris dark brown (Hume). 



Length about 6 ; tail 2*3 ; wing 3'5 ; tarsus *6o ; bill from 

 gapel. 



Distribution. Throughout a considerable portion of the plains of 

 India, from the foot of the Himalayas southwards to near the 

 Kistna river. On the west the limits of this species appear to be 

 Gurgaon, Sambhar, Ajmere, and Abu. Further south it has been 

 met with at Dhulia in Khandesh, and Blanford records it from 

 Chanda, Sironcha, and the Godavari valley. Ball obtained it at 

 Sambalpur and at various localities in Chutia ISTagpur, and I have 

 seen a specimen collected in Behar, but in what particular part of 

 it was not recorded. Our knowledge of the distribution of this 

 peculiar bird is therefore far from satisfactory. 



Habits, fyc. Blanford writes : " These birds keep to the largest 

 trees, running round the stems in all directions and flying with a 

 steady flight, not unlike that of a Woodpecker, but swifter and 

 more elegant. They have a whistling note." Mr. Cleveland found 

 the nest in Gurgaon on the 16th April. It was placed on a hori- 

 zontal bough of a tree aud attached to a vertical shoot. It was 

 cup-shaped, and composed of bits of leaf-stalk and leaves, chips of 

 bark, and the dung of caterpillars, bound together by cobwebs ; it 

 was very firm and elastic. The nest contained two young birds 

 and one egg. This latter was greenish white, with a ring of 

 blackish-brown specks round the large end, and a few specks over 

 the remainder of the shell. It measured '68 by '53. 



