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NOTES ON THE INDIAN TIMELIIDES AND THEIR 



ALLIES 



(LAUGHING THRUSHES, BABBLERS, &c.) 



BY 



Lt.-Col. H. H. Harington, Indian Army. 



Part IV. 



Family — Timeliidje . 



Gronp VIII — (continuecV) . 



Siva, Hodgson, 1838. 



Gates, F. B. I., i., p. 207. 



*' Siva are birds of handsome plumage. The bill is about half the length 

 of the head, gently curved and notched ; the rictal bristles are long, and 

 the nostrils are covered by a membrane ; the head is crested. The tail- 

 feathers are very peculiar, the ends being obliquely truncated, and only 

 the two outer pairs are graduated, the other four pairs being of equal 

 length." (Gates.) 



Their wings are roundish, the first three primaries graduated, and the 

 4th, 5th and 6th equal and longest ; wing and tail about equal in length ; 

 and they have no hairs overhanging the nostrils. 



Their range is along the Himalayas, through Burma and Assam to China 

 and the Malay Peninsula. 



Key, 

 Gates, F. B. I., i., p. 208. 



a. Primaries edged, orange . . . . *S'. strigiila and sub-species. 



b. „ „ blue . . . . 8. cyanuroptera „ 



Siva strigula, Hodgson. 



Siva strigula, Hodgson, Ind. Rev., 1838, p. 89 ; Sharpe, Cat., B. M., vii, 

 p. 638 ; Gates, F. B. 1., i., p. 208. 



Siva strigula and sub-species. 



Description. — Lores spotted black and white ; a ring of yellowish-white 

 feathers round the eye ; forehead and crown orange-brown with an olive 

 tinge ; upper plumage slaty-green ; middle tail feathers basal half chestnut- 

 red, the end black, tipped white ; the others with an increasing amount of 

 yellow on the outer web and tipped yellow, the outermost nearly all yellow; 

 primary coverts black ; primaries and secondaries black, outer edge orange 

 at the base, changing to yellow at the ends ; tertiaries, chiefly slaty -grey 

 on the outer webs, black on the inner, and tipped with white ; ear-coverts 

 speckled greyish to speckled blackish ; chin orange ; throat white tinged 

 with yellow, and with cresentic black cross bars ; a narrow moustachial 

 stripe, and a patch on each side of the head, black ; remainder of under 

 plumage yellowish tinged with olive, olivaceous on the flanks. 



