37. 
BLAPHORNI S , PAUI'SERI 
(PALLISER’S ANT THRUSH) 
ADULT MALE AND FEMALE 
Length 6.4 to 6.76 inches; wing 2.36 to 2.65; tail 2.6 to 2.7; tarsus 1 
to 1.1; middle toe and claw .8'to .85; bill to gape .73 to .87. The female 
is the smaller of the two. 
DISTRIBUTION 
This singular and little known bird was discovered by Kelaart, who sug¬ 
gested its present specific name in honour of a friend, Mr Palliser of Dim- 
bula; he procured it at Mewera Ell la and Dimbula. But few naturalists have 
met with it, owing to its propensity foe inhabiting dense thickets in thick 
jungle. 
It is confined to the upper hills and higher ranges in the outlying dis¬ 
tricts, in all of which it is found above an elevation of about 5000 feet. 
It is a common bird in all the forests of the main range, from Raise Pedro 
to the Horton Plains, and thence along the Peak forests to Maskellya. It 
is found on Namoonl-Kule mountain and on the Haputale hills. It Is perhaps 
more numerous on the Horton Plains than on any other part of the Newnra El - 
11a plateau; the woods there are overgrown with elephant grass (Arundinaria 
Debills), Its favourite haunt, and in this it dwells securely. 
It must not be overlooked in the upper jungles of the Knuckles range; 
when I visited them I was unacquainteddwith its note, consequently it found 
no place in my catalogue of the birds of that district, but the conditions 
of climate and vegetation are similar, there to those of other parts. 
HABITS 
This Ant Thrush dwells entirely in the damp close underwood with which tte 
upper Ceylon forests are overgrown; it delights in the Nillo scrub and the 
densely matted elephant grass, which I have just referred to, both of which 
form the chief part of the undergrowth of the Newera Ellia district; equally 
favourite haunts, however, ane the numberless little nullahs leading to the 
mountain streams, which are generally blocked up with fallen timber of all 
sizes, and a tangled mass of dead nillo sticks, thorns, decaying boughs, and 
such like. Here this little retiring bird passes a quiet though active ex¬ 
istence, nimbly searching about the mossy trunks, quickly hopping and run¬ 
ning along the ground beneath the tangled thickets, through which it threads 
Its way with astonishing rapidity, or darting about the bases of standing 
