524 
PEINIA HODGSONI. 
compare well with those from all parts. But two or three examples I inspected in the national collection 
from Bhotan and Burmah, labelled as P. liodgsoni, had nothing but a slaty wash over the chest, blending imper- 
ceptibly into the surrounding white, and not taking the form of even a pale band ; they were rufescent brown 
above, and the quills were edged with the same colour ; the lower parts w ere likewise w’ashed with buff mstead of 
being pure w'hite ; they resembled P. gracilis above, but had the chest darker than that species, which may be said 
to be, in its pkunage, an ally of P. hodgsoni, and has the upper surface, wings, and tail rufous-brow'n, and the under- 
parts silky white, shaded wdth greyish on the sides of the neck. 
Distribution . — The present species is of local range in Ceylon, and was unknown in the island until I 
discovered it in 1873, near Hambantota. I found it subsequently all over the Wellaway Korale, the Magam 
Pattu, and in other parts of the south-east, as far up the coast as Batticaloa. On the road from that place to 
Badulla I met with it frequently, and traced it as far up as Passara, between which and the skirts of the 
Madulsima district, where the range descends suddenly into the Nilgalla country, it was tolerably common. 
I have not seen it to the north of Vendeloos Bay, nor west of Hatagalla, on the Tangalla road. 
In regard to the reference P. pectoralis in the synonymy of this article, I may mention that the memo- 
randum of the birds inhabiting the Hambantota district of the south-east of Ceylon was written at the request 
of my friend Mr. Thos. Steele, C.C.S., Government Agent of that part, to be embodied in the reports of the 
Ceylon Blue-book for 1874, relating to the district in question; it contained a list of 190 species, with some 
remai’ks on their distribution, and was printed at the Government Offices in Colombo. 
On the mainland this Prinia is, according to J erdon, to be found “ all through the Malabar coast 
the Wynaad, the slopes of the Nilghiris, and more rare on the Eastern Ghats and in wooded valleys at the 
northern termination of the tableland.^-’ As already mentioned, Mr. Blauford has it from Nellore on the east 
coast; and Mr. Eairbank records it from the base of the Khandala hills. Air. Ball has procured it at 
Sambalpur ; and to the north-west it is found in the AIount-Aboo district, the avifauna of which is much 
the same as that of the Western Ghats, it being, as it were, a northerly but isolated spur of this 
range. Air. Hume remarks that it is found in the adjacent hill-ranges of Girwar in Kattiawar and of 
Kooehawun. It extends eastward along the sub-Himalayan region through Bhootan and Nepal (that is, if the 
species there be identical with the southern form), and is found in Burmah, concerning which region Air. Oates 
writes that round Thayetmyo it is common. 
Habits . — This tiny Wren-Warbler is more arboreal in its habits than its other congeners of Ceylon; it 
frequents the edges of low' jungle, underwood at the sides of the roads and jungle-paths, and also the tangled 
vegetation with which badly-cultivated cheenas or deserted forest-clearings are overgrown. It is a more sociable 
bird than P. socialis, little troops of three or four consorting together and following each other from bush to 
bush, or moving about in the underwood in a restless manner, all the while giving out a feeble sibilant 
utterance. In the early morning I often found these little families by the sides of the roads and paths in the 
hot dry jungle of the south-eastern district, and was enabled to procure the young in all stages, from the 
nestling to the immature bird acquiring the dark pectoral band ; their flight was very short and feeble, and, 
after alighting in a bush or shrub, they had the faculty of quickly threading their W'ay to the further side, from 
which they again took flight. The food of this bird consists of small insects, which it picks up among the 
dead wood to which it is so partial. Mr. Bourdillon remarks that it has a feeble twittering song; and Mr. Oates 
writes that the “ male sits on the topmost twig of a bush, and sings a tremendously hearty little song.” I have 
only heard the feeble chirping above mentioned, which I conclude must be tlie usual call-note of the 
species. 
Nidijication . — I never succeeded in finding the nest of this Warbler, but know that it breeds in Alay and 
June, from the number of young birds I met with in July in the low country below Lemastotta. Air. Hume 
and his correspondents, cited in ' Stray Feathers,’ describe its nest as quite Tailor-bird like, composed chiefly 
of fine grass, with no special lining, carefully sewn, with cobwebs, silk from cocoons, or wool, into one or two 
leaves, which often completely envelop it, so as to leave no portion of the true nest visible. The ground-colour 
of the eggs is very delicate pale greenish blue, and the markings differ so much as to divide them into two 
“ distinct types ” — the one unspotted, and the other finely speckled throughout with brownish or purplish red, 
frequently forming a zone towards the large end. They vary from 0-53 to 0'62 inch in length, by from O'd 
to 0'45 in width. 
