60 CHIMARRHORNIS 



mountain gorges and at the edge of the forest. The alarm 

 note of the male resembles the syllables tryck, tryck. The male 

 resembles the Robin in its habits, hops about with its tail over 

 its back, and is very pugnacious to other birds trespassing in 

 its vicinity. The nest is placed in a low bush usually about a 

 foot or eighteen inches from the ground, and is a thick deep 

 cup made of rough grass lined with a few dead leaves, ,some 

 fine grass, grass-roots and a few feathers. The eggs 3 in 

 number are deposited in June and are uniform deep dark blue 

 in colour, and measure about 0'89 by 0*63, but are somewhat 

 variable in size. 



CHIMARRHORNIS, Hodgs., 1844. 

 91. WHITE-CAPPED REDSTART. 



CHIMARRHORNIS LEUCOCEPHALUS. 



Chimarrhornis leucocephalus (Vigors), P.Z.S. 1830, p. 35 ; (Gould), Cent. 

 B. Himal. M. pi. xxvi., fig. 1 ; Hume and Henders. Lah. to Yark., 

 p. 214 ; Sharpe, Cat. B. Br. Mus. vii., p. 47 ; Gates, F. Brit. Ind. 

 Birds, ii., p. 89. 



Gir-chaondia, Hind. ; Mati-tap-pho, Lepch ; Chubia-mati, Bhut. 



g ad. (Himalayas). Crown and nape white; rest of the head, neck, 

 breast, back, and wings black ; rump, tail-coverts, and under parts below 

 the breast chestnut-red ; tail chestnut, broadly tipped with black. Culmen 

 0'65, wing 3'9, tail 32, tarsus 1 '2 inch. The adult female does not differ 

 from the male ; the young are blackish brown, the feathers of the back, 

 rump, and under parts margined with rufous ; tail and wings as in the 

 adult ; crown and nape white with blackish edges. 



Hob. The Himalayas from Afghanistan and Gilgit to Assam ; 

 the Khasi Hills ; Manipur ; the second defile Irrawaddy river ; 

 Arrakan, ranging east to Kansu, the upper Chuanche, and the 

 Ichang gorge on the Upper Yangtse river. 



It frequents the mountain streams where there are trees and 

 bushes and in its general habits lias much in common with the 

 Water-Ousel. It flies from stone to stone close to the surface 

 of the water, like the Water- Ousel and follows the bends of the 

 stream, and both in flight and when seated both sexes utter a 

 rather loud deep piping note. It seldom perches on a tree but 

 is generally to be seen on the banks of, or on stones in, a stream, 

 and has a habit of constantly moving its tail up and down and 

 expanding the feathers. It feeds entirely on insects which it 



