BABBLERS 
General remarks about the birds of this family are rather 
diffictilt to make without resorting to a vagueness bordering 
on the dishonest. The guide to the bird galleries in the British 
Museum, which book we have found very useful in writing 
these introductory bits dealing with "orders" and '^families", 
does not lielp us much at this point for it says that : '*the 
characters and limits of this large Old World family, which 
includes a somewhat %'aried assemblage of species, are still 
im pe rf ectly un d e r sto o d ' \ 
Be that as it may the babblers have certain points in 
common that bind them together. They differ from the bulbuJs 
in that the legs are stronger and comparatively longer. 
They are rarely truly arboreal in habit but in many cases 
arc shy little birds, never flying further than possible and 
preferring to slip about through the undergrowth near the 
ground. The wings are usually small and somewhat concave: 
none of the approximately sixty Malayan species are migratory 
and the great majority are shy jungle birds. A few species 
are met with in country gardens; they are always scarce on 
small islands and in spite of the many kinds found in Malaya 
only two. and these are both mentioned below, can be con- 
sidered as anything like familiar birds in Singapore, 
