44 
BIRDS OF BRITISH BURMAH. 
brown ; tail brown^ broadly tipped with white ; wings glossy dark brown_, 
the primaries with a patch of white on the inner webs^ not visible when 
the wing is closed ; the whole lower plumage pure white. 
The legs and feet varied from a very dark reddish brown to a dark 
purplish brown or brownish black ; bill black ; irides lake. [Davison.) 
Length 8'5 inches^ tail 4^ wing 3'5, tarsus I'l^ bill from gape "95. 
TickelPs Short-tailed Sibia is confined^ so far as is at present known^ to 
the higher slopes of Mooleyit mountain in Tenasserim. 
According to Mr. Davison, the note of these birds is a single, long-drawn, 
clear-sounding whistle. Their food consists both of small berries and 
insects, which latter they capture amongst the foliage of the tree-tops, in 
which they are always moving. They never descend to the ground or 
even to brushwood, and they are not at all shy. 
M. capistratus, of the Himalayas, is of a rufous colour, and has a black, 
crested head. M. gracilis is a small species from Assam, with the upper 
plumage light brown and the lower whitish. M. pulchellus is a species 
allied to M. gracilis ^ from the Naga hills. 
Subfamily TIMELIIN^. 
Genus TIMELIA, Horsf. 
46. TIMELIA PILEATA. 
THE RED-CAPPED GRASS-BABBLER. 
Timalia pileata, Horsf. Trans. Linn. Soc. xiii. p. 151; Jei'd. B. Ind. ii. p. 24; 
Hume, JSests and Eggs, p. 246 ; id. S. F. iii. p. 118 ; Oates, S. F. v. p. 152 ; Anders. 
Yunnan Fxped. p. 634 ; Hume ^ Dav. S. F. vi. p. 267. Timalia jerdoni, 
Walden, Ann. Nat. Hist. ser. 4, x. p. 61 ; Bl. 8f Wald. B. Burm. p. 114. Timalia 
bengalensis, Godwin- Austen, J. A. S. B. xli. pt. ii. p. 143 Hume, S. F. viii. 
p. 95. 
Description. — Male and female. Forehead continued back as a short 
supercilium, white ; lores black ; the whole top of the head to the nape 
bright rufous ; the whole upper plumage olive-brown, the greater coverts 
and tertiaries with broad rusty-brown edges on both webs, and the pri- 
maries and secondaries edged with the same on the outer web only ; chin, 
throat, cheeks and ear-coverts pure white ; sides of the neck ashy, with 
black shafts ; neck and upper breast white, the shaft of each feather black 
and prolonged ; lower breast, abdomen, sides, under tail- and wing-coverts 
ferruginous, the sides darker ; the junction of the white of the breast with 
