366 SYLVIUS. 



breast ash-grey and in having a few spots or marks, sometimes 

 obsolete, sometimes more or less distinct, on the throat and breast, 

 in having the bill rather larger, the upper mandible always blackish 

 and the lower one dusky, not yellow throughout. 



Of the same size as T. luteiventris. 



Distribution. Sikhim (February to May) ; Shillong (October). 



Genus ORTHOTOMUS, Horsf., 1821. 



The genus Orthotomus contains three Indian species of rather 

 bright plumage, approaching in this respect Cryptoloplia, Abrornis, 

 Tickellia, and Phyller gates. Prom the first of these it differs by 

 the absence of all hairs on the forehead and over the nostrils, and 

 from the other three by the possession of twelve tail-feathers. 



The Tailor-birds are remarkable for the skill they display in the 

 construction of their nests. Wherever they occur they are toler- 

 ably common, and in every case they are resident, without the 

 slightest tendency to migrate or even to move locally. The sexes 

 differ slightly in each species ; and the spring moult is apparently 

 only a partial one, resulting in no change of colour. One species, 

 however, is notable for the acquisition in the spring, by the male 

 alone, of a tail of extraordinary length : in the autumn the ordi- 

 nary short tail is resumed. The Tailor-birds are furnished with 

 certain long soft hairs springing from the nape. 



In this genus the bill is as long as the head, broad and rather 

 flat. There are a few rictal bristles on each side, but no supple- 

 mentary hairs, and the forehead is very smooth and flat ; the 

 wing is very short and rounded, the first primary large and the 

 next two graduated; the tail has twelve feathers and is much 

 graduated ; the tarsus is long, and these birds move on the ground 

 with ease. 



Key to the Species. 



a. Upper body-plumage yellowish green. 



a'. Axillaries, under wing-coverts, edge of 



wing, and under tail-coverts white, 



merely tinged with yellow O. sutorius, p. 366. 



b'. The same parts brig-lit yellow O. atrigularis, p. 368. 



b. Upper body-pluniage ashy O. ruficeps, p. 368. 



374. Orthotomus sutorius. The Indian Tailor-bird. 



Motacilla sutoria, Forst. Ind. Zool. p. 17 (1781). 



Motacilla longicauda, Om. Syst. Nat. i, p. 954 (1788). 



Orthotomus longicauda (Gm.}, Blyth, Cat. p. 144 ; Horsf. fy M. Cat. 



i, p. 317 ; Jerd. B. 1. ii, p. 165 ; Hume, N. $ E. p. 331. 

 Orthotomus sutorius (Forst.}, Sharpe, Ibis, 1877, p. 109; Anders. 



Yunnan Exped., Aves, p. 642 ; Hume, Cat. no. 530 ', Scully, S. F. 



viii, p. 305 ; Leyye, Birds Ceyl. p. 517 ; Barnes, Birds Bom. 



p. 214 ; Oates in Hume's N. $ E. 2nd ed. i, p. 231. 



