60 
BIRDS OF BUITISH BURMAH. 
62. TURDINUS BREVICAUDATUS. 
THE SHORT-TAILED THRUSH-BABBLER. 
Turdinus brevicaudatus, Bl J. A. S. B. xxiv. p. 272 ; Bl. B. Burm. p. 115 ; Hume 
8f Dav. S. F. vi. p. 262 ; Godwin- Aust. J. A. S. B. xlvii. pt. ii. p. 16 ; Hicme, S. F. 
vii. p. 462 ; Bingha7n, S. F. ix. p. 179. Turdinus brevicauda (Tick.), Wald. 
Ilis, 1876, p. 354. 
Description. — Male and female, Lores^ supercilium and cheeks grey ; 
ear-coverts brown^ with lighter shafts ; head^ back_, scapulars and rump 
olive-grey^ with the shafts lighter and each feather margined with blackish 
brown; chin and throat streaked with white and dusky; lower plumage 
ferruginous brown_, darker on the flanks and paler and brighter on the 
abdomen; rump and tail olive-brown_, with a rufous tinge; wing-coverts 
and quills olive-brown^ the inner webs of the quills plain brown ; a minute 
terminal white spot on each of the tertiaries and some of the greater 
coverts. 
Legs, feet and claws pale brown to pale fleshy brown ; upper mandible 
very dark brown ; lower mandible plumbeous to pale plumbeous ; irides 
deep brown, red-brown, cinnamon-red. [Davison.) 
Length 5" 5 inches, tail I'9, wing 2*4, tarsus '95, bill from gape '8. The 
female is about the same size. 
Turdinus striatus from Assam is closely allied. It is much less rufous 
below, and the spots on the wings are rufous, not white. I have not been 
able to examine a specimen of T. garoensis. 
The Short-tailed Thrush-Babbler is a very local species, having hitherto 
been found only on the higher slopes of Mooleyit in Tenasserim, above an 
elevation of 5000 feet. 
Mr. Davison says: — '^^I have only met with this Turdinus at Mooleyit and 
its slopes, from 5000 feet and upwards. The slopes of the Mooleyit hills 
are very generally covered with masses or boulders of rocks of all sizes 
lying about in chaotic confusion ; and in such situations, and in such only, 
is this species found, hopping about on and amongst the rocks and turning 
over the leaves in its quest for insects. Like the last it occurs in small 
parties, in pairs, and occasionally singly. When disturbed it utters a long- 
drawn kir-r-Vj and keeps on uttering it till the cause of its disturbance has 
passed or it has retreated into safer quarters. Unless suddenly alarmed, it 
seldom flies, but retreats by hopping rapidly away. I have never heard this 
bird sing, as 1 have heard T. crispifrons do. 
^' Of course these rocky slopes that the bird frequents are densely 
wooded. I have never seen the bird anywhere in the open, or in any place 
that was not rocky as well as wooded. The species may be said to be 
rare even when it does occur.''"' 
