SAXTC0LINJ3. 117 



tipped with white ; breast, belly, and under tail-coverts deep 

 chesnut. 



Bill black ; legs pale fleshy ; irides deep brown. Length 12 

 inches ; wing 3| ; tail nearly 8 ; bill at front f ; tarsus 1. 



The female has the colors less pure and duller than the male. 



This most charming songster is found over all India where there 

 are sufficiently dense or lofty jungles, and it never affects cultivated 

 country, however well wooded.* It is common in all Malabar, 

 especially in the upland districts, as in the Wynaad ; more rare in 

 the Eastern Ghats ; and not unfrequent in all the jungles of 

 Central India to Midnapore and Cuttack. It also frequents all 

 the sub-Himalayan forests, and extends to the hill tracts of Assam, 

 Sylhet, Burmah, and Malacca, as also to Ceylon. 



The Shama frequents the densest thickets, and is very partial to 

 thick bamboo jungles. It is almost always solitary, perches on low 

 branches, and hops to the ground to secure a small grasshopper 

 or other insect. When alarmed, it flies before you from tree to 

 tree at no great height. Its song is chiefly heard in the evening, 

 just before and after sunset. It is a most gushing melody, of great 

 power, surpassed by no Indian bird. In confinement it imitates 

 the notes of other birds, and of various animals, with ease and 

 accuracy. It is caught in great number and caged for its song. 

 Many are brought from the Nepal Terai to Monghyr, chiefly 

 young birds. It is the practice throughout India to cover the 

 cages of singing birds with cloth, and in some places a fresh piece 

 of cloth is added every year. The birds certainly sing away 

 readily when thus caged, but not more so perhaps, than others free- 

 ly exposed. The Shama is usually fed on a paste made of parched 

 chenna mixed with the yolk of hard-boiled eggs, and it appears to 

 thrive well on this diet, if a few maggots or insects are given 

 occasionally. It will also eat' pieces of raw meat in lieu of insects. 

 A new species has lately been discovered in the Andaman 

 Islands, K. albiventris, Blyth ; there is another from Labuan, K. 

 StricJdandi, Mottl. and Dillwyn ; and a fourth species has quite 



* I can scarcely believe that this is Mr. Philipps' Shama, which, says he, in the 

 N. W. P., may be seen perched on walls, and building in houses. 



