LEIOTRICHIN^E. 257 



Bill plumbeous ; legs pale fleshy ; hides brown. Length 4£ 

 inches ; extent 6 ; wing 2 ; tail 2 ; bill at front not J T) . 



This pretty little bird is not very common in Sikhim, and I did 

 not myself observe it. It is also found in Nepal, but I did not 

 procure it on the Khasia Hills. 



622. Proparus vinipectus, Hodgson. 

 Siva, apud Hodgson. — Bltth, Cat. 515 — Horsf., Cat. 593. 



This Plain brown Hill-tit. 



Descr. — Head crested ; plumage above and ear-coverts brown, 

 passing into rusty in the rump ; wings and tail dusky black, with 

 the outer webs of some of the quills rusty, and the base of the 

 caudals the same ; the first four primaries with hoary edges ; a 

 white eyebrow extending to the nape ; beneath, dirty white, tinged 

 with vinous on the breast, and somewhat brownish towards the 

 vent. 



Bill and legs fleshy brown. Length 4| ; wing 2| ; tail not 

 quite 2 ; tarsus y-|. 



This bird was originally described by Hodgson as a Siva, and 

 afterwards Proparus. Bonaparte has made it a Poecila of Kaup 

 among the true Pari. Hodgson remarks of it "distinguished by its 

 perfectly Parian bill without a trace of a notch, and by its long, 

 but not very falcate nails." 



Besides its strong affinities for Parus, it also tends in its colora- 

 tion towards the next group. It has hitherto only been sent from 

 Nepal and the N. W. Himalayas. 



3rd. — Flo w er-p e ck ers ( las ulecc ). 



These birds have the bill more slender and lengthened, and 

 slightly curved in some. They are, like the last, mostly social in 

 their habits, frequent the extreme branches of trees, especially 

 searching flowers for the minute insects harboured there. Most 

 of them are of plain and sombre plumage ; one genus only having 

 somewhat bright colours. 



Gray places them in his lVniotilti?ia, next to the Paring. Hors- 

 field classes most of them in the Pycnonotina?, one alone, Erpornis, 

 in the Timalina. Bonaparte locates them in the Melliphoginoc ; and 



2 K 



