TIMALIN.E. 19 



in small flocks, flying from branch to branch of low trees ; is 

 silent, and lives chiefly on various insects. 



390. Alcippe atriceps, Jerdon. 



Brachypteryx, apud Jerdon, Cat. 78 — Blyth, Cat. 861. 



The Black-headed Wren-babbler. 



Descr. — Head, cheeks, and nape, black ; wings, tail, and under 

 tail-coverts brownish olive, darkest on the tail and wings ; 

 beneath, white, with a tinge of olive-brown on the sides and 

 towards the vent. 



Bill horny -brown ; legs plumbeous ; irides pale orange or buff. 

 Length 5^ inches ; wing 2 T % ; tail 2 ; bill at front T % ; tarsus -^ ; 

 extent 7. 



The Black-headed Wren-babbler is found in the same localities 

 as the last, but not ascending so high on the slopes of the bills, 

 and being most abundant in the lower forests, contrary to the 

 habits of the previous species. 



It frequents the thickest underwood in dense and lofty jungles ; 

 lives in small flocks of five or six, and is continually hopping about 

 the thick bushes with an incessant loud twittering note. It lives 

 on various insects, small mantidce, grass-hoppers, and the like. 



In my Catalogue I placed it under Brachypteryx from its like- 

 ness to B. Sepiaria of Horsfield, which, I see, is noAV considered 

 by some to be also an Alcippe, though Blyth says it is interme- 

 diate to this and Malacopteron. Perhaps this has led Gray to 

 associate this genus with Brachypteryx in his Myotlierince. A 

 very closely allied species is A. nigrifrons, Blyth, from Ceylon; 

 and Brachypt. nigro-capitata, Eyton, is probably another. 



Though so similar in structure, I am by no means certain that 

 these last-named species, viz., A. atriceps, nigrifrons, nigro-capitata, 

 and sepiaria, should not be classed apart from the more dingy- 

 colored species first noticed. The habits of A. atriceps, as observ- 

 ed by myself, are more those of Timalia, or, at all events, of 

 Dumetia and Pellorneum, than the more staid and quiet demeanour 

 of A. jioiocepliala and Nipalensis. 



Next to Alcippe, perhaps, should be placed the pre-eminently 

 Malayan group of the Quaker-thrushes, named Malacopteron by 



