All righf-'i reserved. June, 1915. 
BIRD NOTES: 
THE 
JOURNAL OF THE FOREIGN BIRD CLUB 
The Brown-backed Indian Robin (Thamnobia 
cambaiensis, Lath). 
By H. Whistler, I. P., M.B.O.U. 
The Brown -backed Indian Robin {Thamnobia camhaien- 
sis) and the Black-backed Indian Robin (T. fiiHcata) between 
them occupy the whole of India, from and including Ceylon to 
the Himalayas, in many places up to an elevation of about 
fi,000 feet. Strictly speaking they appear to be really two 
races of a single species, which meeting about Ahmednagar 
and the Godaveri Valley, are not very different in appearance; 
such diffei'ence, as there is, is well denoted by their trivial 
names. 
The Brown -backed Robin is the Punjab form, but within 
the enormous area included under the political boundaries of 
the Punjab there is a well marked difference between the 
birds of the north and south. As far as I 'know there is no 
observable difference in plumage between these northern and 
southern birds, but they are to be distinguished by their 
habits; and this fact has Ibeen noted by more than one observer. 
The boundary appears to be roughly the Jhelum river to the 
east, and (I conjecture) the Indus to the west. To the north 
of this boundary the Indian Robin is a Dird of desolate stony 
I'a vines and bare hillsides, and is comparatively seldom met 
with in cultivation. To the south he is the familiar Dird of 
one's compound, nesting in the servant's quarters and the 
stables, oi' prowling in every ditch and perching on every 
boundary stone throughout the fields. 
Although usual Ij^ treated and described as a resident 
species the Thamnobia cambaicnsis may be slightly migratory; 
for in the 2n(I edition of Hume's " Nests and Eggs of Indian 
Biixis," Vol. II., page 75, it is said to disappear almost entirely 
from Ambala district towards the end of October; and the same 
