MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 707 
and these are of course really in the same family as all the other Babblers, 
As regards his assertion, however, that most of the Babblers lay blue eggs 
there can be no dispute, but that he is labouring under rather a serious 
mistake, The family Crateropodide is divided into six sub-families, the 
Crateropodine, Timeliine, Brachypterygine, Sibiine, Liotrichine, and Bra- 
chypodine. Of these the first named sub-family is the only one containing 
many species which lay unspotted blue eggs, and even here these number only 
about 27 as compared with over 40, which lay white or spotted eggs, The 
third, fourth and fifth sub-families contain each one genusonly, viz., Larvivora, 
Zosterops and Cephalopyrus, which lay pure blue eggs, and thesixth and seventh 
sub-families have no single species laying such, Rimator is a genus of the 
second sub-family, Timeliine, and its position in it is one beyond all doubt, 
whilst its nearest allies would seem to be the birds of the genus Corythocichla. 
Ti seems therefore very strange that such a bird should lay eggs and build a 
nest so absolutely unlike those of its nearest relations, 
Again, Mr, Masson says, “ R. malacoptilus is a small bird, not quite 5 inches 
in length and lays small eggs”. Now R, malacoptilus is a short bird with a very 
short tail, but is in proportion to its length, a stout, bulky bird far larger than 
the little Rhipidura (Leucocerca as Mr. Masson calls it) to the size of whose 
eggs the egos of Rimator are likened, Corythocichla brevicaudata is a smaller, 
less heavy, bird than Rimator, yet I should estimate that the cubic contents 
of an egg of C, brevicaudata are nearly twice the cubic contents of an egg of 
R. albicollis, and the presumption, therefore, would be that the egg of Rimator 
would be at least as big as that of C. brevicaudata if not bigger. 
Taking every thing into consideration I cannot help still thinking that 
Mr, Masson must have made a mistake, and that the birds he shot (if Rimator) 
though haunting the bush in which the nest was found were yet not the 
owners of it, 
I am, I regret to say, no longer in a district where I can hope to either 
confirm or contradict my impressions as there are no hills high enough and 
Rimator is not to be found, but I sincerely trust that Mr. Masson will, this 
year, again find Rimator breeding and will succeed in getting the nest and 
eggs, I trust too that he will manage either to shoot the bird as it leaves 
the nest or, better still, succeed in trapping it on the nest itself. ; 
H.C, STUART BAKER, F.Z.S. 
DieruGara, Assam, 
25th February, 1901. 
No. XX.—NOTES ON BIRDS COLLECTED IN SOUTH SYLHET, 
Amongst other birds lately collected here I have managed to secure a pair of 
Sceeorhynchus ruficeps, the Red-headed Crow Tit, also specimens of Caprimulgus 
monticola, Franklin’s Night-jar, which I found to be rare in Cachar, thcugh 
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