Jm 



PHYLLOSCOPUS NITIDTJS. 



(THE GREEN TREE- WARBLER.) 



Sylvia hippolais, Jerdon, Cat. B. S. India, Madr. Joum. 1840, xi. p. 6. 



Phylloscopus nitidus, Blyth, J. A. S. B. 1843, xii. p. 965 ; Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 



1853, xii. p. 263; Layard & Kelaart, Prodromns, App. Cat. p. 57 (1853); Jerdon, B. 



of Ind. ii. p. 193 (1863); Holdsworth, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 457; Adam, Str. Feath. 1873. 



p. 382; Legge, ibis, 1874, p. 22; Seebohm, Ibis, 1877, p. 72. 

 Abromis nitidus (Bl.), G. B. Gray, Gen. B. i. p. 175 (1848). 

 Begulus nitidus (BL), Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av. i. p. 390 (1850). 



Adult male and female. Length 4-5 to 4-75 inches ; wing 2-5 to 2-6 ; tail 1-65 to 1-8 ; tarsus 0-65 to 07 ; mid toe 

 and claw 0'55 ; bill to gape 0-55 to 0-6 ; bastard primary about 0-3 longer than the primary-coverts. 



Iris dark olive-brown ; bill dark along culmen, margin of upper mandible and almost all the lower fleshy ; legs and 

 feet brownish fleshy, or the tarsus bluish grey and the feet olivaceous in some. 



Above olivaceous greenish ; the breast slightly darker than the back ; wings and tail brown, edged with the hue of the 

 upper surface ; the outer primaries pale-edged ; basal inner edges of quills whitish ; greater wing-coverts with 

 whitish tips, forming a slight bar across the wing ; superciliary streak and beneath the eye greenish yellow-white; 

 lores and a streak at the posterior corner of the eye brown ; beneath whitish, tinged with flavescent greenish, 

 generally brightest on the chest ; flanks shaded with dusky grey ; tail-feathers in some tipped beneath with 

 greenish white, but not so conspicuously as in P. magnirostris ; shafts of the tail-feathers beneath white. 



Summer plumage. The above description is taken from Ceylon-killed winter specimens. Mr. Seebohm recognizes a 

 difference in the breeding attire. Specimens I have examined from Northern India certainly appear to differ 

 from mine in being uniform dull pale green above, the head coneolorous with the hind neck, and the upper 

 tail-coverts paler than the back, having a yellowish tinge. 



Obs. This Tree- Warbler and the two following are among those classed by Mr. Seebohm in the section which have 

 no mesial line on the crown, in addition to which the under mandible is pale and the wing-coverts are tipped 

 whitish, forming one and sometimes two bars across the wing. It is very closely allied to the Greenish Tree- 

 Warbler, but can be easily distinguished from that species, as I shall presently point out. I have submitted 

 all my specimens to Mr. Seebohm for examination, and have myself compared them with examples of the Greenish 

 Tree- Warbler, P. viridanus, and there is no doubt that they are all P. nitidus. A male from Futteghnr, iu 

 Mr. Anderson's collection, measures 2-5 inches in the wing, and three females vary from 2-3 to 2-4 inches. 



Distribution.- — This diminutive Warbler migrates in great numbers from the Himalayas through India 

 to Ceylon, spreading over the whole island, from the sea-coast to the summits of the highest mountains, and 

 frequenting all districts independently of climate or nature of locality. It is equally at home in the Suriah- 

 trees in the streets of Colombo and in the heart of the forests of the Northern Province. It arrives in the 

 island about the middle of September, and departs again at the end of March and the beginning of April. 

 By the end of September it may be found all over the coffee-districts and throughout the extreme south of the 

 island. It is common at Nuwara Elliya and in the circumjacent forests, and frequents the woods on the 

 Horton Plains ; while I have even procured it on the summit of Totapclla, one of the mountains which over- 

 look this elevated tableland. 



The Green Tree-Warbler is spread throughout India in the cold weather, and breeds, in all probability, in 

 the Himalayas. It would seem to be less numerous in the central portions of continental India iu the cool 

 season than it is in Southern India and Ceylon. Jerdon writes that he frequently procured it in the hills of 

 the peninsula; and Mr. Bourcbllon remarks of it, " common in heavy jungle, for the most part frequenting 

 high trees, but sometimes descending to the underwood." As regards the north, Jerdon states that it is rare 

 about Calcutta; and Blyth writes that it is generally distributed, but rare in Lower Bengal. I have seen 



