Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Birds Vol 1).djvu/296

254 its ways it is more Wren than Babbler. They haunt dense, dark forest wherever there are openings for streams, pools or natural small glades and they specially affect places strewn with mossy boulders, fallen trees covered with ferns and orchids, old stumps etc. and over these they dodge about and scramble hither and thither just as does our little Wren at home. Sometimes, however, they hop more sedately about amongst the fallen leaves, turning them over for the hidden insects, or they creep through the bracken and scrub more in the manner of a genuine Babbler. Fly they will not, bur however hard pressed seek safety on their legs, scuttling away into the undergrowth where they speedily become non est. They are, so far as I know, always found in pairs and not in flocks but, as I have seen them principally in the breeding season it may be that they collect in flocks in the winter. Their cry is a rather shrill "chir-r-r" but they have also a rather pleasant but low set of whistling notes. They are extraordinarily tame and, if quiet, one can watch them for a long time without disturbing them.


 * Turdinulus guttaticollis Ogilvie-Grant, Ibis, 1895, p. 432 (Miri Hills, Assam).

Vernacular names. None recorded.

Description. Differs from Austen's Wren-Babbler in being darker and browner above; the rufous on the sides of the breast and flanks is wanting and there is but little of this colour on the cheeks.

Colours of soft parts and Measurements as in the last race.

Distribution. Hill-ranges of Eastern Assam North and South of the Brahmaputra.

Nidification. Dr. H. N. Coltart and I found Grant's Wren-Babbler breeding in some numbers in the hills and broken ground round about Margherita. It nests from some few hundred feet, or even in the plains (vide Stevens), up to 5,000 feet and is an early breeder, most of Dr. Coltart's and my eggs being taken in March and April. Nest and eggs cannot be distinguished from those of T. r. roberti. The latter (40) average 19·3 × 14·8 mm.

Habits. Except that this is a bird of lower levels the description of the last bird's habits would suffice for this also.


 * Turdinulus davisoni O.-Grant, Bull. B. O. C, xxv, p. 97 (1909) (Thoungyah).

Vernacular names. None recorded.

Description. Differs from either of the two preceding birds in