BIEDS OF TENASSEEIM. 347 



[This species was not uncommon at Mooleyit ; always in pairs 

 it kept to the forest or its edges. They are birds that are 

 not easily overlooked, as on the approach of any one they utter 

 a low buzzing note of alarm, sounding like kiz-kiz-kiz, which 

 they keep up as long as they suspect danger, working their 

 way to the very top of a bush where they show themselves 

 fearlessly to have a good look at the intruder. They hunt 

 about the leaves and branches for insects, on which they live, 

 but do not descend to the ground. — W. D.] 



The following are dimensions, &c, of two males recorded in 

 the flesh : — 



Length, 46 to 4*8 ; expanse, 5*7 to 5 - 8 ; tail from vent, 1 -65 to 

 17; wing, 1*75 to 1*8; tarsus, 0*75; bill from gape, 0'65 to 

 0-7 ; weight, 025 oz. 



Legs and feet yellowish fleshy ; upper mandible, tip and 

 edges of lower mandible along commissure, black ; rest of bill 

 yellowish fleshy ; irides brown. 



532.— Prinia flaviventris, Deless. (8). 



Bankasoon ; Malewoon. 



Confined apparently to the extreme south of the province. 



[I only found this species in the grassy wastes about Male- 

 woon and Bankasoon, where it was not uncommon. Generally 

 there were three or four together, chiefly amongst the grass, but 

 also about the bushes and bamboo clumps that studded these 

 wastes. They are excessively noisy little birds, and are very 

 fond of working their way to the top of some bush or grass 

 stem, and sitting there for a considerable time, keeping up all 

 the while an incessant chink, chink, chink. They feed on in- 

 sects, especially on the small moths that are so common about 

 long grass. — W. D.] 



Lord Tweeddale, B. of B., p. 128, remarks upon the variation 

 observable in this species as regards the color of the lores 

 and ear-coverts, and the absence or presence of a supercilium. 



It is seldom that the whole of the lores are white ; there is 

 generally a dusky grey line through them to the anterior angle 

 of the eye, but a conspicuous greyish white line from the 

 nostrils over the anterior half of the eye is not uncommon. It 

 occurs equally in specimens from Assam, the Bhootan Dooars, 

 Calcutta (where the birds are extremely common about the salt 

 lakes) and various parts of Tenasserim. Our specimens show 

 that it depends neither upon sex nor season. It is an indivi- 

 dual peculiarity similar to what is observable in Prinia stewarti 

 and Prinia socialis, which I have already noticed, S. F., IV., 

 497. Probably, about one in ten birds show this white line 

 very conspicuously. I have only seen one specimen that had 



