524 PEINIA HODGSONI. 



compare well with those from all parts. But two or three examples I inspected in the national collection 

 from Bhotan and Burmah, labelled as P. hodgsoni, had nothing but a slaty wash over the chest, blending imper- 

 ceptibly into the surrounding white, and not taking the form of even a pale band ; they were rufescent brown 

 above, and the qudls were edged with the same colour ; the lower parts were likewise washed with buff instead of 

 being pure white : they resembled P. gracilis above, but had the chest darker than that species, which may be said 

 to be, in its plumage, an ally of P. hodgsoni, and has the upper siu'face, wings, and tail rufous-brown, and the under- 

 parts silky white, shaded with greyish on the sides of the neck. 



Distribution. — The present species is of local range in Ceylon, and was unknown in the island until I 

 discovered it in 1873, near Hambantota. I found it subsequently all over the Wellaway Korale, the Magam 

 Pattu, and in other parts of the south-east, as far up the coast as Batticaloa. On the road from that place to 

 Badulla I met with it frequently, and traced it as far up as Passara, between which and the skirts of the 

 Madulsima district, where the range descends suddenly into the Nilgalla country, it was tolerably common. 

 I have not seen it to the north of Vcndeloos Bay, nor west of Hatagalla, on the Tangalla road. 



In regard to the reference P. pectoralis in the synonymy of this article, I may mention that the memo- 

 randum of the birds inhabiting the Hambantota district of the south-east of Ceylon was written at the request 

 of my friend Mr. Thos. Steele, C.C.S., Government Agent of that part, to be embodied in the reports of the 

 Ceylon Blue-book for 1874, relating to the district in question ; it contained a list of 190 species, with some 

 remarks on their distribution, and was printed at the Government Offices in Colombo. 



On the mainland this Prima is, according to Jerdon, to be found " all through the Malabar coast, 

 the Wynaad, the slopes of the Nilghiris, and more rare on the Eastern Ghats and in wooded valleys at the 

 northern termination of the tableland." As already mentioned, Mr. Blanford has it from Nellore on the east 

 coast ; and Mr. Fairbank records it from the base of the Khandala bills. Mr. Ball has procured it at 

 Sambalpur ; and to the north-west it is found in the Mount-Aboo district, the avifauna of which is much 

 the same as that of the Western Ghats, it being, as it were, a northerly but isolated spur of this 

 range. Mr. Hume remarks that it is found in the adjacent hill-ranges of Girwar in Kattiawar and of 

 Koochawun. It extends eastward along the sub-Himalayan region through Bhootan and Nepal (that is, if the 

 species there be identical with the southern form), and is found in Burmah, concerning which region Mr. Oates 

 "litis that round Thayetmyo it is common. 



Habits. — This tiny Wren-Warbler is more arboreal in its habits than its other congeners of Ceylon ; it 

 frequents the edges of low jungle, underwood at the sides of the roads and jungle-paths, and also the tangled 

 vegetation with which badly-cultivated cheenas or deserted forest-clearings are overgrown. It is a more sociable 

 bird than P. socialis, little troops of three or four consorting together and following each other from bush to 

 bush, or moving about in the underwood in a restless manner, all the while giving out a feeble sibilant 

 utterance. In the early morning I often found these little families by the sides of the roads and paths in the 

 hot dry jungle of the south-eastern district, and was enabled to procure the young in all stages, from the 

 nestling to the immature bird acquiring the dark pectoral band; their flight was very short and feeble, and, 

 alter alighting in a bush or shrub, they had the faculty of quickly threading their way to the further side, from 

 which they again took flight. The food of this bird consists of small insects, which it picks up among the 

 dead wood to which it is so partial. Mr. Bourdillon remarks that it has a feeble twittering song; and Mr. Oates 

 writes that the " male sits on the topmost twig of a bush, and sings a tremendously hearty little song." I have 

 only heard the feeble chirping above mentioned, which I conclude must be the usual call-note of the 

 species. 



Nidification. — I never succeeded in finding the nest of this Warbler, but know that it breeds in May and 

 June, from the number of young birds I met with in July in the low country below Lemastotta. Mr. Hume 

 and his correspondents, cited in ' Stray Feathers/ describe its nest as quite Tailor-bird like, composed chiefly 

 of fine grass, with no special lining, carefully sewn, with cobwebs, silk from cocoons, or wool, into one or two 

 [eaves, which often completely envelop it, so as to leave no portion of the true nest visible. The ground-colour 

 of the eggs is very delicate pale greenish blue, and the markings differ so much as to divide them into two 

 " distinct types " — the one unspotted, and the other finely speckled throughout with brownish or purplish red, 

 frequently forming a zone towards the large end. They vary from 053 to - 62 inch in length, by from - 4 

 to 0*45 in width. 



