330 
BIRDS OF BRITISH BURMAH. 
312. ARACHNOTHERA LONOIROSTRA. 
THE LITTLE SPIDER-HUNTER. 
Certhia longirostra, Lath. Ind. Orn. i. p. 299. Arachnothera pusilla, Bl. Cat. 
B. Mus. As. S. Beng. pp. 222, 328 Jerd. B. Ind. i. p. 361 ; Bl. ^ Wald. B. Burm. 
p. 140 ; Hume, S. F. iii. p. 85. Arachnothera longirostra, Salvad. Ucc. Born. 
p. 186; Tweedd. Ibis, 1877, p. 300, pi. 114; Shelleg, Mon. Nect. pp. 1, 357, 
pi. 114; Fairhanh, S. F. v. p. 397 ; Hume ^ Dav. S. F. vi. p. 174 ; Hume, 8. F. 
vii. p. 35, viii. p. 89 ; Bingham, S. F. ix. p. 170 ; Oates, S. F. x. p. 197. 
Description. — Male, The upper plumage olive-green, the feathers of the 
forehead and crown centred with dark brown ; lesser wing-coverts like the 
back ; greater coverts and the wings brown^ edged with olive-green ; tail 
blackish, tipped with dull white and obsoletely margined with olive-green ; 
lores whitish ; sides of the head ashy brown ; a short moustachial streak 
dark brown ; chin and throat dull white ; remainder of lower plumage 
deep yellow ; a tuft of feathers on each side the breast chrome-yellow. 
The female differs in wanting the pectoral chrome-yellow tufts. 
Bill above brown, below plumbeous ; iris dark brown ; legs plumbeous ; 
claws horn-colour. 
Length 6'3 inches, tail 1'6, wing 2*6, tarsus "65, bill from gape 1*5. 
The female is smaller. 
The Little Spider-hunter is apparently distributed over the whole of 
British Burmah. Mr. Blyth states that it occurs in Arrakan. I have 
myself procured it once in the Pegu Division, at a place in the hills about 
ten miles north of the town of Pegu, and I have seen it in other localities. 
Capt. Wardlaw Ramsay observed it at Tonghoo. Mr. Davison states that 
it is common throughout Tenasserim, and Capt. Bingham got it in the 
Thoungyeen valley. 
It extends down the Malay peninsula, and is found in the islands of 
Sumatra, Java, Borneo and Celebes. To the north of Burmah it ranges 
through Chittagong and the hill-tracts of Eastern Bengal, and is found 
over the greater part of India. 
Bernstein found the nest of this species. This accurate observer describes 
it as of an oval form, and as attached to the underside of a large leaf, 
which thus forms the back wall of the nest. It is attached to the leaf by 
wool and fibres. The inside is lined with soft leaves and grass ; and the 
outer portion is made up chiefly of skeleton leaves. The eggs are white, 
with a narrow zone of reddish-brown spots and streaks round the blunt 
end. 
