382 NOTES ON SOME BIRDS COLLECTED ON THE: NILGHIRIS 
ferent individuals with pale brown ; lower mandible sometimes 
tinged with pale yellow; irides bright pearly white. 
436.—Argya malcolmi, Sykes. The Large Grey-front- 
ed Babbler. 
This Babbler is not a common bird in the country embraced 
in this paper. I have met with a few flocks occasionally on 
the lower slopes below Kotagherry, and in the Mysore country 
near Gundulapet. and Muddur. I have never met with it on 
the slopes below Coonoor, Neddivuttum, or the Seegore Ghat. 
I may mention a curious incident about this bird. In 1869 
or 1870, Iam not certain which, a flock of about twenty indivi- 
duals of this species suddenly made their appearance in the 
town of Ootacamund, taking up their abode in the Government 
Public Gardens, from whence they strolled among the well- 
wooded gardens in the vicinity for about a radius of a mile. 
I noticed their arrival at once, for I was, at that time, quite 
unacquainted with the bird, and their very peculiar and un- 
familiar note made them very conspicuous. I left Ootacamund 
in 1872, and then they seemed to be just the same number ; 
when I returned nearly ten years afterwards the flock was 
still there and frequenting the same place, but reduced to five 
individuals. I made many enquiries among both Europeans 
and natives who had noticed their arrival, and found that they 
always remained thereabouts, never seemed to breed, and 
gradually diminished in numbers. This party always frequent- 
ed the tops of the highest trees, and if disturbed when 
feeding in the ground, at once betook themselves to the high 
trees, 
I shot one, a female, out of the remaining five, and this 
I measured with the following results :— 
Length, 11:1; expanse, 14°5; tail, 5-4; wing, 4:6; tarsus, 
1°41; bill from gape, 1:09. Irides bright yellow; upper 
mandible dark brown; lower mandible, legs, and feet fleshy, 
slightly tinged blue. 
437.—Layardia subrufa, Jerd. The Rufous Bab- 
bler. 
This bird in habits and voice is quite a Malacocercus; the 
only points of difference are that it keeps to much denser cover, 
being found far away in forests, and the voice is softer and more 
subdued. It is especially partial to dense thorny scrub jungle 
and bamboo. It feeds, like the Malacocerci, on the ground 
chiefly. It does not ascend to the plateau of the Nilghiris, 
but I have shot it about a couple of miles from Coonoor on 
the Ghat. It is also not.uncommon in the Wynaad, but I did 
