246 BIRDS OF TENASSERIM, 



350 bis.— Zoothera marginata, Blyth. (3). 



(Karennee, from 1,500 to 3,000 feet, Ram9.) Dargwin ; Mooleyit; Meetan. 



Confined apparently to the hills of the northern and central 

 sections of the province, and their neighbourhood. 



[This too is a very rare bird in Tenasserim, frequenting low 

 tree jungle like the last, but apparently ascending the hills 

 higher, for I have shot it at about 5,000 feet on the 

 Mooleyit range. Its food (as I found by an examination of the 

 stomachs of those I obtained) consists of insects of various 

 sorts and their larvse, and small land shells. I have never heard 

 the note of the bird, and know next to nothing about its habits. 

 All the specimens I obtained were shot on the ground 

 where they were busy turning over dead leaves as so many 

 Thrushes do.— W. D.] 



We only obtained females of this species, and curiously 

 enough my only sexed specimens of this species, from Sikim 

 and the Bootan Doars, ai*e also females. The bird is a minia- 

 tureof Zoothera monticola, but is a somewhat more rufescent olive 

 brown above, without the darker margins to the feathers of the 

 back, which in monticola give these parts a scaly appearance ; 

 and with the feathers of the middle of the breast and abdomen 

 regularly margined with olive brown, giving these parts a 

 scaly appearance, which is wanting in monticola. 



The following are dimensions and colors of the soft parts of 

 females : — 



Females. — Length, 9*5 to 10*12 ; expanse, 1575 to 16'12 ; tail 

 from vent, 2"8 to 362 ; wing, 4*85 to 5*05 ; tarsus, 1*1 to l'jj ; 

 bill from gape, 1*45 to 1*6 ; weight, 3*0 to 3'75 ozs. 



The legs and feet varied from dark brown to pale bluish 

 brown ; the claws pale horny ; the upper mandible and lower 

 mandible from tip to angle of gonys from black to very dark 

 horny brown ; rest of lower mandible reddish to bluish fleshy ; 

 gape yellowish or fleshy white ; irides deep hair brown. 



The entire upper parts are a rich olive brown, slightly rufes- 

 cent on the back, more decidedly so on the rump, and usually 

 paler and still more rufescent on the wings. Some few of the 

 median and secondary greater coverts with rufous buff tippings ; 

 primary greater coverts tipped with brown. Some birds are 

 much more, and others much less, rufescent on back and wings, 

 and the tippiugs above described are very conspicuous in some, 

 almost obsolete in other birds. The inner webs of the quills 

 are hair brown with a broad buff or rufous buff patch on the 

 inner webs towards the bases of all but the first three prima- 

 ries and with a trace of the same on the third. The central 

 tail-feathers and the outer webs of the lateral ones are the 

 same color as the rump, that is, more olivaceous in some 

 specimens, more rufescent in others. 



