TIMALINiE. - 69 



This species is very similar to the last, but differs in being a 

 little larger, in the frontal feathers being less rufescent, and more 

 distinctly streaked, in the tail being barely striated, and the chin 

 not being white, &c. &c. 



It is found throughout Lower Bengal and the Nepal Terai, 

 extending along the valley of Assam and southwards to Burmah, 

 where it is very abundant ; but has not yet been noticed in Southern 

 or Central India, nor in the N. "W. Provinces. It frequents heavy 

 grass and reed jungle, exclusively, especially near water, and is a 

 most common bird along all the rivers of Eastern Bengal, and its 

 note, which is something like that of its congener, but clearer 

 and louder, is often the only sound heard whilst tracking along 

 the river banks. It associates in large flocks, and a sentinel is ge- 

 nerally posted on some high perch to warn the rest of any danger. 

 They feed more exclusively on insects perhaps than the last 

 species. 



C. gularis, Blyth, from Barmah, is the familiar Garden-babbler 

 of Thyetmyo, and is still more abundant and familiar higher up 

 the river Irrawaddy, as Mr. W. Blanford informs me. Other 

 species belonging to the group of Babblers are found in Africa, 

 such as Crateropus Jardinii, A. Smith, and perhaps some ranked 

 under Ixos, viz., I. plebeius, I. leucocevhalos, and /. leucopygius 

 of Ruppell. The former of these, indeed, is very like a true 

 Malacocircus. Some of the other African Crateropi appear 

 immediate between this group and Garrulax ; but their habits, as 

 described by Tristram, are very similar to those of Malacocircus 

 or Chatarrhcea. Chcetops, Swainson, perhaps should also be placed 

 in this group. 



Next the Babblers I place a small series of Reed and Grass 

 birds, some of them striated, others of plain plumage ; they are 

 somewhat aberrant members of this family, and their location here 

 is not adopted by all. Gray and Horsfield place them among the 

 Warblers, and Bonaparte makes of them a section, Sphenurece, of 

 his Calamolierpince, including most of our birds, and others greatly 

 affined to them from other regions ; but he places them next the 

 Timulidtc. Blyth, too, classes them near Chatarrhcea, to which 

 the larger species are certainly nearly related, whilst the smaller 



