6o6 



The Sparrow-like Birds 



affairs woven of slender grasses, rootlets, and various fibers, and suspended by 

 a slender thread from the ends of slender branches, often overhanging water. 

 The entrance is on the side and is often provided with a rude porch or pro- 

 tected by an overhanging portico, while some are supplied, perhaps for pur- 

 poses of ornament, with a long tail sometimes three feet in length. The eggs 



FlG. 176. Long-tailed Broad-bill, Psarisomus dalhousia. 



are three or four in number, white or cream-colored, either spotless or more 

 frequently much speckled, especially on the larger end. 



The sixteen species of Broad-bills disposed among seven genera are con- 

 fined to the Oriental region, ranging from the western Himalayas over the 

 Malay Peninsula to the Philippines, Sumatra, and Borneo. Many of them are 

 very bright colored birds, each genus exhibiting a distinct coloration. In the 

 typical genus (Eurylamus} the bill is large, broad, and flat, with the sides of 

 the upper mandible convex and overhanging, characters which it shares with 

 the monotypic genus Corydon, but from which it differs in having the region 

 below the eye feathered. In Eurylamus, which embraces two species, the 



