PHYLLERGATES. 439 



Hume, was obtained at Lakhipur in Cachar. This specimen, now 

 in the Hume Collection, is identical with Chinese birds. The 

 proper habitat of the species is China. 



Genus PHYLLEEGATES, Sharpe, 1883. 



The genus Phyller gates contains one species, which all Indian 

 writers have hitherto placed with Orthotomus. Sharpe has sepa- 

 rated the present genus from Orthotomus on account of its 

 differently-shaped tail and bill, but he has kept it in the section of 

 the Cisticolce with 12 tail-feathers. This is of course wrong, as 

 Phyllergates has only ten rectrices. 



This genus differs from Orthotomus in so many characters that 

 there is some doubt whether it is as closely allied to that generic 

 type as it is to Abrornis and Tickellia, with which two genera it has 

 many characters in common, such as the broad blunt bill and the 

 slightly graduated tail of 10 feathers. It is, moreover, so similar 

 to T. hodysoni in coloration that at first sight they appear inseparable. 

 Jerdon's account of the nest of P. coronatus is very likely to be 

 wrong, as he did not find it himself nor did he pay any great 

 attention to nidification, and I should not be surprised to learn 

 hereafter that the Golden-headed Warbler, like Abrornis, con- 

 structed its nest in a hole of a tree. 



In this genus the spring moult appears to have no effect on the 

 colour of the plumage, and certainly none on the shape and 

 length of the tail. 



454. Phyllergates coronatus. The Golden-headed Warbler. 



Orthotomus coronatus, Jerd. $ Blyth, P. Z. S. 1861, p. 200 ; Jerd. B. 

 I. ii, p. 168 ; Godw.-Aust. J. A. S. B. xxxix, pt. ii, p. 107 ; Hume, 

 N.fyE. p. 334; Wald. in BlytKs Birds Burm. p. 121; Sharpe, 

 Ibis, 1877, p. 115; Hume $ Dav. S. F. vi, p. 346; Hume, Cat. 

 no. 531 ; id. 8. F. xi, p. 207. 



Phyllobates coronatus (Jerd. $ Blyth), Gates, B. B. i, p. 110. 



Phyllergates coronatus (Jerd. # Bh/th), Sharpe, Cat. B. M. vii, 

 p. 230 ; Gates in Hume's N. # E. 2nd ed. i, p. 282. 



The Golden-headed Tailor-bird, Jerd. 



Fig. 136. Bill of P. coronatus. 



Coloration. Forehead and crown chestnut ; a short supercilium 

 yellow, turning to pale grey over the ear-coverts ; lores and the 

 upper part of the ear-coverts dark ashy brown ; lower part of the 



