THE BROWS'-BACKED TIT-BABBLER 
Thus from the verandah of a Iiouse in Fort Cmning^ Road 
we used often, in the early monimg^, to hear the quite un- 
mistakahlc note of this species as one soUtary bird worked its 
way from garden to garden down the road, no doubt to retire 
to a less populous area before the sun was very hii^^h. Like- 
wise a friend of ours has noticed that in the early momini? one 
or two of these birds will pass the Labrador Villa — calling to 
each other as they worked through the bushes and undergrowth 
fringing- the coast. When once the bird is located it often 
allows a close approach and then the feature that one can 
readily pick out of an otherwise dull picture is the somewhat 
rufous wash on the flanks which seems even more pronounced 
in a living bird than in a museum skin. 
Oiher habits: — Although we have seen young birds being 
fed by their parents in the patch of jungle at the Botanic 
Gardens we have never found a nest. Mr. Stuart Baker 
writing of the bird's habits in India and Burma says : '*l£ breeds 
only in deep, wet tree-forest with ample undergrowth and 
preferably near some stream, making a massive nest of dead 
leaves, weeds and grass with an inner cup of leaves, roots and 
weeds compactly bound together and lined with some fern- 
palm, near the ground. The egj^s number three to live and 
are ver>' beautiful, the ground-colour varies from a ver)' pale 
to a rich pale salmon pink, whilst the markings consists of 
spots, blotches and lines of deep red-brown with paler spots 
of light red and neutral tint". 
Of about the same size as T, abbotii is Atsuro^sis malac- 
ct'nsis. This babbler is furthennore very similar in plumage 
to abbotii but it may be distinguished by its even yet longer 
legs, the much whiter throat and the grey face. It is not 
uncommonly met with in those parts of the Botanic Gardens 
in which the vegetation is wild and thick and like abbotii it 
slips about the undergrowth and is of skulking habits. The 
voice is very characteristic and consists of a run of clear distinct 
whistles. 
[1S7] 
