62 BIRDS OF BRITISH BURMAH. 
f 
their bases to their summit^ and never wandering away from the rocks 
even for a few yards. 
" They are excessively lively, sprightly birds, keeping up continually a 
twittering, chattering note ; and occasionally one will perch itself on some 
point of rock and, with lowered wings and erected tail, pour forth a fine 
and powerful song. They feed principally upon insects and small land- 
shells ; but I have found small white round seeds, about the size of mustard- 
seed, in their stomachs. When shot, unless killed outright, they at once 
scramble into one of the numerous holes or crevices with which these 
rocks are everywhere honeycombed, and are of course lost. They are not 
shy birds, and from the limited nature of their habitats are not difficult to 
procure. 
Genus TUEDINULUS, Hume, 
64. TUEDINULUS MUEINUS. 
ROBERTAS GROUND-BABBLER. 
M3riothera murina (S. Mull.), Bl. Ibis, I860, p, 47. Pnoepyga roberti, Godioin- 
Austen 8f Wald. Ibis, 1875, p. 252; Hume, S. F. iv. p. 218. Turdinulus 
roberti, Hume ^ Dav. S. F. vi. p. 234; Hume, S. F. viii. p. 93. Turdinulus 
murina, Hume, /S'. i^. ix. p. 115. 
Description. — The head, nape, back and scapulars olive-brown, the 
region o£ the shaft much paler, and each feather edged with blackish ; 
rump-feathers very ample and soft, plain ferruginous olive-brown ; a broad 
and distinct supercilium fulvous ; a spot in front of the eye brown ; ear- 
coverts mixed fulvous and brown ; cheeks fulvous, tipped with blackish ; 
chin and throat fulvous white ; breast and abdomen fulvous brown, the 
centres of the feathers paler, and some of the feathers of the breast with 
triangular brown spots near the tips; flanks, vent and under tail-coverts 
ochraceous buff; lesser wing-coverts olive-brown, tipped paler; greater 
and median coverts reddish brown, each feather tipped with white ; wing 
brown on the inner webs and russet-brown on the outer webs, the tertiaries 
and some o£ the secondaries tipped with white ; tail reddish brown. 
The above description is taken from one of the type specimens in Capt. 
Wardlaw Ramsay's collection. According to Mr. Hume the coloration of 
these birds is subject to great variation. He says : — '^The general shade 
of colour of the birds also varies a good deal ; some are paler, some darker, 
some have the long superciliary stripe and the entire throat bufip colour, 
and the entire breast and abdomen olive-brown, the feathers streaked 
centrally with buffy white, and no pale unstreaked patch in the middle of 
the abdomen. Others have the supercilium and the entire throat and 
