54 
BIRDS OF BRITISH BURMAH. 
56. STACHYRIDOPSIS RUFIFRONS. 
HUME^S TREE-BABBLER. 
Stachyrhis rufifrons, Hume, S. F. i. p. 479, iii. p. 117 ; Wald. in Bl. B. Burnt. 
p. 116 ; Brooks, S. F. iv. p. 274 ; Hume, S. F. iv. p. 501 ; Hume 8f Dav. S. F. vi. 
p. 265 ; Hume, S. F. viii. p. 95 ; Bingham, S. F. ix. p. 179. Stacliyridopsis 
rufifrons, Sharpe, Cat. Birds B. Mus. vii. p. 
Description. — Male and female. Forehead and crown chestnut^ the 
feathers with blackish shafts. Whole upper plumage, wings and tail olive- 
brown_, the inner webs of the wing- quills being plain brown ; chin and 
throat whitish with black shafts ; lores, superciUum, sides of face and neck 
and whole lower plumage fulvous brown. In some birds the upper plumage, 
and especially the tail, is tinged with rufous. Capt. Bingham states that 
the female differs from the male in having the rufous of the forehead and 
head paler. 
Bill blue ; iris deep red ; eyelids plumbeous ; legs fleshy brown ; claws 
pale horn-colour. 
Length 4*5 inches, tail 1*9, wing 2"1, tarsus '7, bill from gape '55. The 
female is very little smaller than the male. 
I discovered Hume^s Tree-Babbler in the Pegu hills in 1873, and sent 
it to Mr. Hume who described it. I found it in the forests on the western 
spurs of the hills, frequenting brushwood in a nullah, but I had no oppor- 
tunity for observing its habits. 
Mr. Davison found it sparingly distributed throughout Tenasserira ; 
Capt. Bingham records it from the Thoungyeen valley; and Capt. Wardlaw 
Ramsay obtained a bird in Karenuee which was probably of this species. 
It has also been procured in the Bhootan Dooars at the foot of the 
Himalayas, and in the British Museum is a specimen from Cachar. 
This species is very closely allied to ruficeps of the Himalayas. It 
differs from that species in not having the chestnut of the head reaching 
to the nape, in the upper plumage being less green, in the lower plumage 
wanting the strong yellow tinge of S. rvficeps, and in being smaller. >S^. 
frcECognita, from China, is another closely allied race, having the chestnut 
of the head limited in extent as in S. rufifrons, but with the lower plumage 
of S. ruficeps. 
