PASSERES. 
Earn. SAXICOLID^*. 
Bill straight, compressed towards the tip. Nostrils oval or rounded and somewhat exposed ; 
rictal bristles generally small, in some well developed. ^Vings variable — in some pointed, with 
the 1st quill much reduced ; in others moderately rounded, with the 1st quill rather lengthened. 
Tail of twelve feathers. Tarsus lengthened, in some smooth, in others scutellated. 
Of small size. Nesting on the ground or in holes or niches, and of gesticulating habit with 
the wings and tail. 
Genua PEATINCOLA. 
Bill wide at the base, the culmen moderately curved ; gape beset with well-developed rictal 
bristles. Nostrils protected by a few impending bristles. Wings rather rounded, the secondaries 
long; 1st quill slightly less than the innermost secondary, the 3rd to the 6th nearly equal, the 
4th being the longest. Tarsus smooth, exceeding the middle toe with its claw ; lateral toes short. 
PEATINCOLA BICOLOEt. 
(THE HILL BUSH-CHAT.) 
Pratincola hicolor, Sykes, P. Z. S. 1832, p. 92 ; Hume, Str. Feath. 1873, p. 183 ; id. Nests 
and Eggs (Rough Draft), ii. p. 314 (1874); Fairbank, Str. Feath. 1876, p. 406. 
Pratincola atrata (Kelaart), Blyth, J. A. S. B. 1837, xx. p. 177 ; Kelaart, Prodromus, p. 101, 
et Cat. B. p. 121 (1852); Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1853, xii. p. 266 ; Jerdon, 
B. of Ind. ii. p. 124 (1863); Holdsworth, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 454. 
Pratincola caprata, in pt. (Linn.), Plorsf. & Moore, Cat. B. Mus. E. I. Co. i. p. 284 (1854) ; 
Sharpe, Cat. B. iv. p. 195 (1879). 
The Nilgherry PlacJc Pohin, Jerdon ; The Nuwara-Elliya Robin, Europeans in Ceylon. 
Adult male. Length 5-9 to 6-2 inches ; wing 3-0 to 3-25 ; tail 2-25 to 2-4 ; tarsus 0-9 ; middle toe, with its claw 0-86 
to 0’9 ; bill to gape 0‘8 to 0’82. ’ 
Iris hazel-brown ; bill, legs, and feet black. 
* In this family I have placed together the Ceylonese members of that large and interesting group of birds which 
lire normally of small size, and possess that peculiar spasmodic habit of the wings and tail which is highly characteristic 
of their typical representatives, the true Chats, and which, combined with their non-sylvan habits, tend to form a bond 
of unity, in spite of perple.ving external differences, such as a smooth and a scaled tarsus, or a bare and a bristled gape 
Many of them possess Muscicapine affinities, and not a few Turdine ; and it therefore appears to me that the family forms 
a well-marked connecting-link between the Flycatchers and the true Thrushes. 
The SaxkoUnm are placed by Jerdon among the Sylviidse ; but I shall reserve for this family Warblers which possess 
certain well-marked characters of structure and economy, which have been lately pointed out by Mr. Seebohm. 
t The North-Indian race P. caprata is said by Layard to have been procured at Ambegamoa, a hill-district ; it is, 
however, a resident species in northern parts, and does not migrate southwards, so that, probably, specimens of the’ 
present species were mistaken for it 
