340 NOTES ON SOME BURMESE BIRDS. 



lower, fleshy yellow ; the inside of the mouth, orange yellow ; the 

 legs and claws, pinkish brown ; the soles of the toes, yellow. 

 It was shot on the 21st March. The fourth aud fifth quills are 

 subequal and longest, and the first falls short of them by 1*18. 



532.— Prinia flaviventris, Delessert. 



The Yellow-bellied Wren Warbler is very abundant through- 

 out Lower Pegu in suitable localities. In the plains between 

 the Sittang and Pegu rivers they are constant residents, breeding 

 freely from May to August and September. In Rangoon 

 also all round the Timber Depot at Kemandine, and in the 

 low-lying land between the town proper and Monkey Point 

 they are very numerous. 



As in other Warblers, that I have examined, of this group, 

 the iuside of the mouth, during the breeding season, is black. 



544 quat.— Drymoipus extensicauda*, Swmhoe. 



The Broad-tailed Wren Warbler is perhaps the commonest 

 bird of the Pegu Plains. From Myitkyo on the Sittang, and 

 possibly from further north, down to Rangoon, it is to be found 

 in all the low tracts covered with grass. 



It is an amusing little bird, always on the move. Perched 

 on the summit of a stalk of elephant grass it gives out its 

 monotonous song, consisting of one note repeated some twenty 

 times.; then, with its ample tail held at right angles to the back, 

 it skips away to the bottom of the next tuft only to reappear 

 shortly on the summit with its persistent little song. These 

 birds seem hardly able to regulate their flight. They seldom 

 fly more than 20 yards, and in this short space they appear in 

 eminent peril of turning sundry somersaults, for the bill on 

 these occasions points to the ground, while the tail, bent well 

 over the back, is nearly horizontal. 



Where it occurs, it is a constant resident and breeds from 

 May to August. I have found the nest in the middle of 

 May, but it is not till July that the bulk of the birds lay. 



The nest is never more than four feet from the ground, and is 

 attached either to two or more stalks of elephant grass ; or to 

 the stem of a low weed ; or to the blades of certain tender 

 grasses which grow in thick tufts. There is little or no at- 

 tempt at concealment. The materials forming the nest are 

 entirely fine grasses, of equal coarseness or fineness throughout, 

 gathered green and so beautifully woven together that it is 

 almost impossible to destroy a nest by tearing it asunder, 

 although it may be looked through. In shape it is somewhat of 

 a cylinder, with a tendency to swell out at the middle. Its 

 length, or rather height, for its longer axis, being invariably 



* As identified by Mr. Hume. 



