Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Birds Vol 1).djvu/316

 272 TTMALIID.i:.

Colours of soft parts. Iris madder-red t© deep brown; orbitul skin liglit lo dull smalt blue; bill dark plumbeous or brownish blue^ lower mandible paler; legs, feet and claws very pale greenish or yellowish white.

Measurements. Total length about 140 mm.; wing 56 to 60 mm; tail about 50 mm.; tarsus about 20 mm.; culmen about 13.to 14 mm. Distribution, rrom the extreme South of Tenasserim down the Malay Peninsula to Borneo and ISumatra.

Nidification. Nests taken by Davison and others in March and April are described as balls of grass or reed-leaves about 6 inches in diameter and placed in bushes. The eggs, two or three in number,, are glossv china-white spotted with reddish all over but most numerously at the larger end. In shape they are obtuse ovals. Five eggs in my collection average about 16-9 x 13-6 mm. Eggs taken by Messrs. Hopwood and Mackenzie are described as unspotted white with a bluish tinge.

Habits. Said to be very common in the evergreen parts of Tenasserim and the Malay Peninsula, haunting brushwood, small trees and cane-brakes in parti(:'S, working the foliage for insects^ much like a Titmouse and uttering a " sharp, metallic rolling sound, which it utters chiefly when alarmed, but also at other times " {Davison). Genus MIXORNIS Hodgson, 1842. The genus Mixornis differs from all other genera of slender- billed Thnaliince in having the nostrils oval, exposed and not covered by a membrane, or scale, as in the others. Within Indian- and Burmese limits we have but one species which varies con- siderably in different countries, forming subspecies or geographical races which are not always easy to define. Mixornis rubricapilla. Key to Subspecies. A. Crown pale feirupinous, stripes on fore- neck and breast fairly well developed. . M. r. rubncapiUa, p. 273» B. Crown more pale brown, less ferruginous, stripes on fore-neck and breast very tine. M. r. minor, p. 274. C. Crown more chestnut-rufous, stripes on ifeuSi^s fore-neck and breast decidedly heavier. . M. r. pileata, p.^274. Havinf examined several hundred specimens of this little bird in the British Museum and Tring Museum as well as those in the Indian INIuseum and my own collection, I have come to the con- clusion that we cannot recognize more than three races of Mixornis as coming within the limits of this work. Eippon'ssitZ^^/mj-fa is an exact replica of many Assam and Bengal birds and the Southern Shan States appears to be about the limit of this form. jS'orthern Siam specimens, from which Gyldenstolpe names hisil/. ?»?nf)r, are certainly nearer South and Central Siam forms, as also are specimens from East Central Burma, so all these birds must bear his name.