PHYLLOSCOPUS NITIDUS. 
(THE GREEN TREE- WARBLER.) 
Sylvia hippokds, Jerdon, Cat. B. S. India, Madr. Journ. 1840, xi. p. 6. 
Phylloscoims nitidtis, Blyth, J. A. S. B. 1843, xii. p. 965 ; Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 
1853, xii. p. 263; Layard & Kelaart, Prodromns, App. Cat. p. 57 (1853); Jerdon, ^B. 
of Ind. ii. p. 193 (1863) ; Holdsworth, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 457 ; Adam, Str. Feath. 1873, 
p. 382; Legge, ibis, 1874, p. 22 ; Seebohm, Ibis, 1877, p. 72. 
Ahrornis nitidus (BL), G. K. Gray, Gen. B. i. p. 175 (1848). 
Regulus nitidus (BL), Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av. i. p. 390 (1850). 
Adult male and female. Length 4'5 to 4-75 inches; wing 2-5 to 2-6 ; tail 1-6.5 to 1-8 ; tarsus 0-6o to 0-/ ; mid toe 
and claw 0-55 ; bill to gape 0-55 to 0-0 ; bastard primary about 0-3 longer than the primary-coverts. 
Iris dark olive-brown ; bill dark along eulmcn, margin of upper mandible^ and almost all the lower fleshy ; legs anc 
feet brownish fleshy, or the tarsus bluish grey and the feet olivaceous in some. 
Above olivaceous greenish; the breast slightly darker than the back ; wings and tail brown, edged with the hue ot the 
upper surface ; the outer primaries pale-edged ; basal inner edges of quills whitish; greater wing-coverts with 
whitish tips, forming a slight bar across the wing ; superciliary streak and beneath the eye ^eenish yellow-white; 
lores and a streak at the posterior corner of the eye brown ; beneath whitish, tinged with flavescent greenish, 
generally brightest on the chest; flanks shaded with dusky grey; tail-feathers in some tipped beneath with 
greenish white, but not so conspicuously as in P. mafjnirostns ; shafts of the tail-feathers beneath white. 
Summer phmage. The above description is taken from Oeylon-Hlled winter specimens. Mr. Seebohm recognizes a 
difference in the breeding attire. Specimens I have examined from Northern India certainly appeax to difler 
from mine in being uniform dull pale green above, the head concolorous with the hind neck, and the upper 
tail-coverts paler than the back, having a yellowish tinge. 
Obs This Tree- Warbler and the two foUowing are among those classed by Mr. Seebohm in the section which have 
■ no mesial line on the crown, in addition to which the under mandible is pale and the ^ 
whitish, forming one and sometimes two bars across the wing. It is very closely allied to the Greenish Tree: 
Warbler, but can be easily distinguished from that species, as I shall presently point on . ave su ^ 
all my specimens to Mr. Seebohm for examination, and have myself compared them with examples of the Greenish 
Tree-Warbler P.viridanus, and there is no doubt that they are all P. nitidus. A male from 1 utteghur, in 
Mr Anderson’s collection, measures 2-5 inches in the whig, and three females vary from 2-3 to 2-4 inches. 
Distribution.— T\iis diminutive W^arbler migrates in great numbers from the Himalayas through India 
to Ceylon spreading over the whole island, from the sea-eoast to the summits of the highest mountains, and 
frequenting all districts independently of climate or nature of locality. It is equally at home in the Suriah- 
trees in the streets of Colombo and in the heart of the forests of the Northern Province. It arrives in the 
island about the middle of September, and departs again at the end of March and the beginning of Apnl. 
By the end of September it may be found all over the coffee-districts and throughout the extreme south ot the 
island. It is common at Nuwara Elliya and in the circumjacent forests, and frequents the woods on t e 
Horton Plains ; w'hile I have even procured it on the summit of Totapella, one of the mountains w nc 
The Green Tree-Warbler is spread throughout India in the cold weather, and breeds, in all probability, in 
the Himalayas. It would seem to be less numerous in the central portions of coutmenta n la in 
Ion liGt is in Southern India and Ceylon. Jerdon writes that he frequenriy proeni.d it in ^e hills G 
the peumsuU; Mr. Bourd.ll„« of it, '' ^ art 
hiah trees but sometimes descending to the underwood. As legaras tuc noii, , , t u 
M cAtte; aod Blyth .rites that it is generally distributed, but rare m Lower Bengal. 1 have seen 
