ASSAM, sylhEt and cachae. 169 



At the season I met with it, it seemed to be invariably in 

 pairs. It haunts dense undergrowths and is never seen, except 

 by accident, and hence, though not I believe very scarce in the 

 localities in which I found it, it is still very hard to procure. 

 It has a peculiar soft single-note call, by following up which 

 I procured all my specimens. I only got seven altogether though 

 I never heard the note, after the first day on which I learnt it 

 without trying hard for a shot. The following are exact 

 particulars of those I measured : — 



Legs and feet fleshy, sometimes pinker, sometimes greyer, and 

 sometimes slightly brownish ; generally distinctly brownish on 

 joints and claws ; soles always yellowish ; bill very dark to 

 blackish brown ; irides brown, sometimes yellowish. This 

 species somewhat reminds one of Grammatoptila striata. 



Except lores, ear-coverts, chin and quite the upper throat, 

 primaries, secondaries, wing-lining and tail-feathers, the 

 feathers of all other parts more or less conspicuously 

 white-shafted on the upper, white, buffy white or buffy- 

 shafted on the lower surface of the bird ; nareal plumes 

 and a long narrow supercilium extending nearly to the 

 nape, more or less silvery white, less conspicuous than it would 

 otherwise be owing to the very marked silvery white 

 shafting of the entire cap, nape, &c. ; lores palish ferruginous ; 

 from the base of the lower mandible a more or less buify 

 white stripe extends under the eye, covering the cheeks and 

 expanding over the ear-coverts, the upper ones of which are 

 a little blotched with the brownish maroon of the cap or the 

 chestnut maroon of the throat or an intermediate tint, and 

 this same tint, one or other of the three, occupies the space 

 between the top of the ear-coverts and the hinder portions of the 

 supercilium ; the chin and entire throat down to the breast 

 a rich chestnut maroon ; as a rule the chin and upper throat, 

 as already specified, not pale shafted, but occasionally shov/ing 

 traces of this even on these parts ; the ground of the cap, 

 nape and sides of neck brownish maroon, changing into the grey- 

 ish olive of the interscapulary region, scapulars, back, rump and 

 upper tail-coverts. In some specimens the brownish maroon 

 tinge quite ceases at the nape, in others it spreads far down 

 the back ; the olive is sometimes very grey, sometimes de- 

 cidedly brown. Occasionally there is a fulvous or rusty tinge on 



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