22 GARDEN AND AVIARY BIRDS. 



deserves notice, as it makes a most charming cage-bird 

 when hand-reared. This is 



THE YELLOW-EYED BABBLER (Pyctorhis sinensis), a 

 little creature rather smaller in the body than a Sparrow, 1 

 but with a long tail Its colour is cinnamon-brown- 

 above, and white, shading into buff, below ; and it 

 has a stout, curved black bill, and yellow eggs and eyelids.' 

 The eyes are also yellow, whence the native name 

 gulab-chasm. 



This bird is found all over the Empire, but does not 

 ascend the hills to any height ; it prefers grass to any 

 other cover, and is less gregarious than most Babblers, 

 going singly or in pairs. It has some very pretty notes, 

 and looks very striking when uttering them with erected 

 head-plumage, the pure white throat looking like a 

 beard. In captivity it is mischievous and quarrelsome ; 

 it is not wise to put more than a pair together, or to 

 associate them with birds as small as themselves. Two 

 caged birds of this kind I kept singly were absurdly tame ; 

 one would let itself be tickled through the bars with one's 

 finger, and the other could be even taken up in the hand 

 and allowed to fly about, when it would fearlessly ex- 

 plore one's person. I have removed it from my mous v 

 tache three times in quick succession. Taken altogether, 

 if all Gulab-chasms are anything like these two birds, the 

 species can hardly be excelled as a pet. But, as a true 

 insect-feeder, its food of course will give a little trouble. 



It breeds from May to September, building a cup* 

 shaped nest of grass and bark fibre in long grass or a low 

 tree. The eggs are pinkish-white with red blotches. 



