30 BIEDS OF BRITISH BURMAH. 
Family TIMELIIDtE. 
Subfamily CRATEROPODIN^.. 
Genus CEATEEOPUS, Swains. 
30. CRATEROPUS EARLII. 
THE STRIATED REED-^BABBLER. 
Malacocercus earlii, Bl. J. A. S. Beng. xiii. p. 369. Cliatarrhoea earlii, Jerd. 
B. Ind. ii. p. 68 ; Hume, Nests and Eggs, p. 275 ; Hume ^ Henders. Bali, to 
Yark. pi. x. ; Hume, S. F. iii. p. 124; Oates, S. F. v. p. 156; Hume, 8. F. viii. 
p. 97 ; Oates, S. F. x. p. 208. Crateropus earlii, Bl. B. Burm. p. 118. 
Description. — Male and female. Upper plumage brown tinged with 
rufous, the feathers of the head centred largely with very dark brown, 
those of the back and scapulars with very dark brown shaft-marks ; upper 
tail-coverts obsoletely dark-shafted ; tail brown, the shafts darker, and all 
the feathers cross-rayed ; the whole wing with the coverts brown, the lesser 
coverts centred with darker brown ; lores grey j cheeks and ear- coverts 
plain rufescent; chin, throat and breast the same, but with the shafts 
brown, the shaft-stripes becoming larger from the chin to the breast ; 
remainder of lower parts pale buffy brown, albescent in the centre of the 
abdomen. 
Iris bright yellow ; eyelid plumbeous ; bill fleshy yellow, the culmen, 
nostril, and tip of both mandibles horn- colour; mouth yellow; legs 
plumbeous ; claws pinkish. 
Length 9*5 inches, tail 4'8, wing 3*5, tarsus 1*3, bill from gape I'l. 
The female is much the same in size. 
The Striated Reed-Babbler occurs very numerously in many parts of 
Pegu. It is abundant in all the grassy plains lying between the Pegu road 
and the Sittang river from the latitude of Shwaygheen southwards to about 
Kamwone. I also found it very abundant in the grass plains of the 
Henzadah district. Mr. Blanford met with it at Thayetmyo, where I, 
however, failed to notice it in the course of many years, so that it must be 
rare there. 
According to Jerdon it occurs in Bengal and the Nipal Terai. It has 
also been obtained in Scinde. It probably occurs throughout the Indo- 
Burmese countries. Colonel Godwin- Austen records it from the Khasia 
hills and other portions of Eastern Bengal. 
This Reed-Babbler frequents grassy plains, going about in small flocks, 
