ACANTHOPNEUSTE. 411 



between the eighth and ninth, but sometimes between the seventh 

 and eighth. 



This and the preceding -species are very distinct when in fresh 

 or fairly good plumage. Birds in worn plumage are not easy to 

 separate. 



Distribution. A winter visitor to the plains of India, ranging as far 

 east as about the longitude of Mudhupur on the E.I. Railway, 

 where it meets P. super ciliosus, and the two are found there together. 

 It extends south to about the latitude of Belgaum. It is found 

 throughout the Himalayas as far as Nepal, but it has not occurred 

 in Sikhim. I cannot find it recorded from Sind or from the drier 

 parts of Kajputaua, but elsewhere within the limits above indicated 

 it seems to be common. It is known to breed abundantly in 

 Kashmir, and probably ils migration does not extend beyond the 

 Himalayas. 



Habits, <${c. The breeding-season seems to commence in May in 

 Kashmir. The nest, a cup of coarse grass, lined with moss-roots, 

 is built on the ground on banks and sides of ravines. The eggs, 

 four or five in number, are white spotted with red, and measure 

 56 by -44. 



419. Phylloscopus mandellii. Manddli's Willow-Warbler. 

 Reguloides mandellii, Brooks, S. F. viii, pp. 389, 481 (1879). 



Coloration. Resembles P. saperciliosus very closely, but has the 

 upper plumage a darker green ; the coronal streak is equally ill- 

 detined, but the lateral bands are a dark blackish olive, very much 

 darker than the back ; the supercilium is buff; the wing-bars are 

 dull yellow, and the upper one is indistinct and tinged with green. 



Upper mandible black; lower mandible yellow at base, blackish 

 at tip ; legs and feet pale yellowish (Broolcs). 



Length about 4*1; tail 1'7 ; wing 2'2 ; tarsus '75; bill from 

 gape -4 ; the second primary is about equal to the ninth. 



I have seen very few specimens of this bird, but these few are 

 quite distinct from P. superciliosus and P. humii, neither of which 

 approaches its rich coloration. 



Distribution. The Khasi hills and Sikhim, where this species is 

 probably a resident. 



Genus ACANTHOPNEUSTE, Blasius, 1858. 



The genus Aeanthopneuste, which contains eleven Indian species, 

 differs from Pliylloscopus, as already noted, in having a proportion- 

 ally larger bill and the nostrils overhung by frontal hairs growing 

 from the rictus or gape quite up to the culmen. In other respects 

 the two genera are alike. 



The following descriptions of the plumage, as in Pliylloscopus, 

 are brief and applicable to the birds after the autumn moult on 

 first arrival in the plains. The differences between the winter and 



