172 LIST OF BIEDS IN MANIPUR, 



genus. The chin, throat and whole sides of the head are white, 

 the ear-coverts only being dark. There is a shower of black 

 and white drop-like spots on the sides of the neck as in Tur- 

 dinus guttatus; the bill is more that of Timalia ; the tail com- 

 paratively short, and even the wings are only obsoletely barred. 



(3) A. dajlaensis, G.-Aust., obtained by the describer on the 

 Shengorh peak and high forest at 7,000 feet in the Dafla hills, 

 but as yet recorded from no other locality. This likewise is a 

 representative of nipalensis, a sort of chesnut above, grey head, 

 and scarcely any barring on the tail. 



429bis. — Malacias gracilis, McClelL 



Common everywhere in both Eastern and Western hills in 

 forest at 4,500 feet and upwards. Very active birds, they run 

 along the branches dodging in and out of the bunches of para- 

 sitic ferns, orchids and mistletoe, so that it is not easy to shoot 

 them. Occasionally for a minute they stand as a Dhyal 

 (Gopsychus) w^ould, with their long tails cocked at an angle of 

 45" to the horizon, but though scarcely smaller they are much 

 slenderer built birds than the common Magpie Robin, and are 

 much more active and restless. Accurate measurements and 

 description of this species are to this day desiderata. 



Tarsi very pale brown, feet darker, claws a little darker still ; 

 bill black ; irides dull red, maroon or reddish brown. 



The lores, forehead, cheeks, ear-coverts, crown and more or 

 less of the occiput, vary from black to deep smoky brown ; the 

 lores and forehead are generally black; the ear-coverts common- 

 ly have a brown tinge, but in some all the parts abovemention- 

 ed and the whole occiput are black, and in others even the lores 

 and forehead have a somewhat brownish tinge ; more or less 

 (sometimes none at all) of the occiput, back of neck, scapulars, 

 upper and middle back, a smoky brown, varying much in tint, 

 never very dark, often faintly shaded, especially on the nape 

 with grey ; rump and upper tail-coverts a very delicate, some- 

 times bluish, French grey ; central tail-feathers French grey 

 with a broad black band half an inch from the tip ; lateral tail- 

 feathers black, broadly (increasingly so as the feathers recede 

 from the centre) tipped with French grey ; chin, more or less 



