46 
BIRDS OF BRITISH BURMAH. 
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Genus PYCTOEHIS, Hodgs, 
47. PYCTORHIS SINENSIS. 
THE YELLOW-EYED GRASS-BABBLER. 
Parus sinensis, Gm. Syst. Nat. i. p. 1012 j Jerd. B. Ind. ii. p. 15 j Hume, Nests and 
Eggs, p. 237 ; Hume, S. F. iii. p. 115; Bl. B. Burm. p. 117; Oates, S. F. v. 
p. 151 ; Anders. Yunnan Exped. p. 637 ; Hume, S. F. viii. p. 95. 
Description. — Male and female. The whole upper plumage rufescent 
brown, changing to cinnamon on the tertiaries and the outer webs of the 
other quills ; lores, chin, throat, cheeks and breast pure white ; abdomen, 
flanks, vent and under tail-coverts pale fulvous ; ear-coverts and sides of 
neck like the back ; tail duller than the upper plumage and very faintly 
cross-barred. 
Iris pale orange-yellow ; eyelids deep orange ; bill black, yellowish at 
the nostrils ; legs pale orange-yellow ; claws pinkish ; mouth yellow in 
winter, black in summer. 
Length 7 inches, tail 3'4, wing 2*5, tarsus 1, bill from gape "6. The 
female is a trifle smaller. 
A somewhat similar, but much larger, species with a long bill, P. longi- 
rostris, occurs in India and Eastern Bengal, and is not at all unlikely to be 
found in Burmah. 
The Yellow-eyed Grass-Babbler occurs plentifully in every part of Pegu 
that I have visited except the higher hills, but is much commoner in the 
vast grassy plains of the south than elsewhere. Mr. Blyth states that he 
noticed it abounding in the vicinity of Akyab in Arrakan ; and it is pro- 
bably spread over the whole of that division. Mr. Davison found that in 
Tenasserim it was confined to the portion of the division north of Moul- 
mein, and it was rare. 
It is spread through the Indo-Burmese countries and the whole of the 
peninsula of India, up to Scinde on the one hand and down to Cape 
Comorin on the other, and it ascends the Himalayas to about 4000 feet 
elevation. 
This Babbler affects jungle of all descriptions, but, as before remarked, 
is much commoner in grass-land than in other sorts of jungle. Its usual 
call consists of a few loud and pleasant notes. It creeps through grass 
very cleverly, never moving a blade ; but its presence is detected by its 
often-repeated call. 
It builds its nest in June, making a neat cup-shaped structure of grass, 
which it places near the ground supported between two weeds or more 
stalks of grass. The number of eggs is usually four, pinkish white blotched 
with red. 
