PASSERES. 



Fam. SAXICOLID.E*. 



Bill straight, compressed towards the tip. Nostrils oval or rounded and somewhat exposed ; 

 rictal bristles generally small, in some well developed. Wings variable — in some pointed, with 

 the 1st quill much reduced ; in others moderately rounded, with the 1st quill rather lengthened. 

 Tail of twelve feathers. Tarsus lengthened, in some smooth, in others scutellated. 



Of small size. Nesting on the ground or in holes or niches, and of gesticulating habit with 

 the wings and tail. 



Genus PKATLNCOLA. 



Bill wide at the base, the culmen moderately curved ; gape beset with well-developed rictal 

 bristles. Nostrils protected by a few impending bristles. Wings rather rounded, the secondaries 

 long ; 1st quill slightly less than the innermost secondary, the 3rd to the 6th nearly equal, the 

 4th being the longest. Tarsus smooth, exceeding the middle toe with its claw ; lateral toes short. 



PRATINCOLA BICOLOKt. 



(THE HILL BUSH-CHAT.) 



Pratincola bicolor, Sykes, P. Z. S. 1832, p. 92; Hume, Str. Feath. 1873, p. 183; id. Nests 

 and Eggs (Rough Draft), ii. p. 314 (1874); Fairbank, Str. Feath. 1876, p. 406. 



Pratincola atrata (Kelaart), Blyth, J. A. 8. B. 1837, xx. p. 177 ; Kelaart, Prodromus, p. 101, 

 et Cat. B. p. 121 (1852); Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1853, xii. p. 266 ; Jerdon, 

 B. of Ind. ii. p. 124 (1863); Holdsworth, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 454. 



Pratincola caprata, in pt. (Linn.), Horsf. & Moore, Cat. B. Mus. E. I. Co. i. p. 284 (1854) ; 

 Sharpe, Cat. B. iv. p. 195 (1879). 



The Nilghcrry Black Robin, Jerdon ; The Nmoara-Elliya Robin, Europeans in Ceylon. 



male. Length 5-9 to 6-2 inches ; wing 3 - to 3 - 2o ; tail 2-25 to 2-4 ; tarsus 0-9 ; middle toe, with its claw, 0-85 

 to 0-9; bill to gape 0-8 to 0-82. 

 In- hazel-brown ; bill, legs, and feet black. 



' In tliis famili/ i have placed together the Ceylonese members of that large and interesting group of birds which 

 are normally of small size, and possess that peculiar spasmodic habit of the wings and tail which is highly characteristic 

 of their typical representatives, the true Chats, and which, combined with their non-sylvan habits, tend to form a bond 

 of unity, in spite of perplexing external differences, such as a smooth and a scaled tarsus, or a bare and a bristled gape. 

 Man} nl' them possess Muscicapine affinities, and not afew Turdine ; and it therefore appears to me that the family forms 

 ;i well-marked connecting-link between the Flycatchers and the true Thrushes. 



The Saxicolinas are placed by Jerdon among the Sylviidse ; but I shall reserve for this family Warblers which possess 

 certain well-marked characters of structure and economy, which have been lately pointed out by Mr. Seebohm. 



The North-Indian race P. caprata is said by Layard to have been procured at Ambegamoa, a hill-district ; it is, 

 however, a resident species in northern parts, and does not migrate southwards, so that, probably, specimens of the 

 present species were mistaken for it 



