ALCIPPE NIGEIFKONS. 



(THE CEYLON WREN-BABBLER.) 

 (Peculiar to Ceylon.) 



Alcdppe nigrifrons, Blyth, J. A. S. B. 1849, xviii. p. 815 ; id. Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 340 

 (1849); Kelaart, Prodromus, Cat. p. 122 (1852); Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist, 

 1853, xii. p. 269; Blyth, Ibis, 1867, p. 302; Legge, J. A. S. (Ceylon Branch) 

 p. 42 (1870-71) ; Holdsworth, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 446 ; Legge, Ibis, 1874, p. 18 ; id. Str. 

 Feath. 1875, p. 367. 



The Mountain-Thrush, Kelaart ; " Quaker-Thrush" popularly in India. 



Batitchia, Sinhalese. 



Similis A. atricipiti, sed minor, et fronte tantum nigra distinguenda. 



Adult male and female. Length 4-9 to 5-3 inches ; wing 2-15 to 2-3; tail 1-7 to 1-9 ; tarsus 0-8 to 0-9; mid toe aud 

 claw 0-7 to - 75 ; bill to gape 0-65 to 07. 



Females are the smaller of the sexes. 



Iris yellowish white or very pale yellow ; bill, gape, and culmen dark brown, margins of the upper and lower mandible 

 fleshy ; legs and feet fleshy lavender, claws dusky. 



Forehead, face, and ear-coverts dull black, blending into the rusty brown of the occiput, upper surface, wings, and 

 tail ; outer primaries pale-edged ; tail nigrescent towards the extremity and distinctly cross-rayed ; beneath, the 

 throat, neck, breast, and abdomen sullied white, with a dusky shade on the sides of the chest ; flanks and under 

 tail-coverts olivaceous rufescent ; under wing-coverts and inner edges of quills beneath fulvescent buff. 



The amount of black on the head varies, being continued further back in some specimens than in others. 



Obs. There is a marked difference in the tint of the upper surface of this species according to the locality it inhabits. 

 Examples from the south of the island and from the Western Province are, as described above, rusty brown, while 

 those from the colder climate of the upper hills are decidedly olivaceous on the back and wing-coverts ; specimens 

 from the north of Ceylon are, as a rule, intermediate between the two. Although individuals vary inter se in 

 the amount of ferruginous tint present on the back, the up-country race will be found, as a whole, to be decidedly 

 less rust-coloured than the low-country birds. The same character, as already observed, is exemplified in the 

 Scimitar-Babbler, Pomatorhinus melanurus. 



Young. The nestling has the iris olive, but in plumage almost entirely resembles the adult, the forehead only 

 differing in being less nigrescent. 



Obs. The Ceylonese species is allied to the South-Indian A. atriceps, Jerdon, to which another closely affined race 

 has latetv been discovered by Mr. Bourdillon and described by Mr. Hume under the name of A. bourdilloni. 

 A. atriceps has the head, face, and nape black, in addition to the forehead; the wings and tail are brownish olive 

 (resembling in this particular our up-country birds, but paler even than they are), and the species is somewhat 

 larger than ours. Specimens in the national collection measure 2-3 inches in the wing. A. bourdilloni has the 

 black cap replaced by a brown one, and has the bill and tarsi stouter than in the last mentioned ; the wing 

 measures 2-4 inches. The Nilghiri Quaker-Thrush (A. poiocephala) is larger than any of the foregoing; wing 

 2-7 inches : it has the same style of coloration, but with the " head and nape dusky cinereous ; back and rump 

 greenish olive." 



Distribution. — This little Wren-Babbler, which is the smallest of the Babbling Thrushes found in Ceylon, 

 was discovered by Layard in 1848, and described, loc. cit., by Blyth. It is one of the commonest and most 

 widely distributed of our jungle-birds, being found throughout the whole island up to the jungle-clad summits 

 of the peaks of the main range. It is common throughout the Kandyan and southern hills wherever there 



3t2 



