NOT^S ON INDIAN TIMELIIDES AND THEIR ALLIES. 325 



Craxeropus tbbb,icolor terricolor, Hodgson. 

 The Bengal Babbler. 

 Turdus canorus,-\ Linn. Syst. Nat. i., p. 293, (1766). 

 Pastor terricolor, Hodgs, J.A.S., B.V., p. 771 (1836). 

 Crateropus canorus, Sharpe, Cat. B.M., vii., p. 478, Gates, F. B. I., i., p. 



Malacocercus terricolor, Jerdon, B. of I., ii., p. 59. 



Description. — " Above brownish ashy, paler and somewhat cinerous on the 

 head and neck : browner on the back, where the feathers are faintly pale 

 shafted ; quills brown, with outer webs paler and narrowly bordered with 

 ashy; tail reddish brown, faintly barred, and the outer feathers tipped with 

 pale whity-brown ; beneath pale ashy-brown on the throat and breast, the 

 feathers very faintly edged and shafted lighter ; abdomen, vent, and under 

 tail coverts pale fulvescent." — Jerdon. 



Distribution. — Sind and the whole of Northern India, Bengal and also in 

 Nepal and Sikhim. Where this sub-species meets C. malabaricus, Jerdon, in 

 the south at present uncertain. 



Crateropus tbrricoior malabaricus, Jerdon. 



The Southern Indian Jungle Babbler. 



Malacocercus malabaricus, Jerdon, B. of I., ii., p.. 62., 1847. 



Description. — "■ Very like M. terricolor but somewhat darker in colour with 

 broader and more distinct pale mesial streaks on the feathers of the back, 

 and especially of the breast the tertiaries are but very obscurely striated, 

 but the tail is distinctly so." — Jerdon. 



Distribution. — " The greater part of the Peninsula of India, in the 

 Carnatic, the N. Circars, the Malabar Coast, the slopes of the Nilgiris, and 

 the tableland, in suitable places as far as Nagpore and to the latitude of 

 Bombay on the Western Ghats." — Jerdon. 



I consider this a very good geographical race, birds from the Nilgiris 

 being quite distinct from those from N. India ; no doubt they grade from 

 one into the other, and the exact locality where one begins and the other 

 ends has not yet been determined. 



Birds of this sub-species from Coonoor were undoubtedly mistaken by 

 Gates for C. striatus, (See note C. g. striatus.) 



Crateropus griseus griseus, Gm. 



Tlie White-headed Babbler. 



'Turdus griseus, Gm. Syst. Nat., i., p. 824., (1788). 



Crateropus griseus, Sharpe, Cat. B. M., vii., p. 840; Gates, F. B. I., i., p. 

 112. 



Description. — As in Gates, F. B. I., I think this sub-species may possibly 

 have two phases of plumage, one with the head white, and the other colour 

 red like the back. (See remarks C. g. striatus from Godavery Valley). 



Distribution. — Southern India up to a line from EUore, Secunderabad and 

 Belgaum. 



t In the orig-inal description of T. canorus, it is mentioned that the species came 

 from China, and that it has a white eye-brow and a rufous tinge to the plumage, 

 this clearly cannot refer to the Indian bird. 



Trochalopterum canorum., Linn- is also referred to in the original description 

 in Linn. System Nat., p. 293, 1766, and as the description undoubtedly refers to 

 this species from China, the name canorus cannot theref ore be equally applied to 

 the Indian bird, therefore, Hodgson's name terricolor must be used. 



