Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Birds Vol 1).djvu/318

 274 TIMALIID.^. is glossy and stout and the shape a broad oval. One hundred eggs average 16'6 x 12'6 mm.

Habits. The birds of this genus are typically plains' birds, seldom ascending the hills to any height. They keep to bushes, lower trees and bamboo when hunting for food, never resorting to the ground for this purpose and almost equally seldom visiting the higher trees. In their attitudes and manners they are more thoroughly Timaliine and h-ss Tit-like than birds of the genera Stachyris and Stavhyridopsis, for though they keep in good-sized flocks they creep and clamber about in a quiet, unobtrusive manner instead of fluttering or moving restlesslv from one twig to another. They are very partial to bam boo- jungle, whetlier with or without undergrowth and are also found in scrub and grass and in deserted cultivation patches. Harington describes their note as a monotonous "chuk" constantly repeated.


 * Mirorms gukiris vnnor Gyldenstol'pe, Kuugl. Sv. Yet.-Akad. Haudl., Ivi, 1916, p. 60 (Lat Bua Kao).

Vernacular names. None recorded.

Description. Differs from the last bird in having the crown less ferruginous, more brown; the stripes on the throat and breast finer and fewer; the up))er parts a less pure olive-green.

Colours of soft parts and Measurements as in the last.

Distribution. Siam and Eastern Central Burma.

Nidification. Eggs obtained by Messrs. W. J. E. Williamson and E. Gr. Herbert near Bangkok in May and June measure about 16'9 X 13"0 mm. The nest seems to be almost invariably placed in Pine-iipple plants.

Habits. This race seems to favour the haunts of mankind far more than the other races do. It is not only to be found round about villages and human habitation but actually enters gardens and orchards and breeds there.


 * Prinia pileata Blyth, J. A. S. B., xi, 1842, p. 204 (Malay).
 * Mixornis gular is. Blanf. & Oates, i, p. 168.

Vernacular names. None recorded.

Description. Differs from the last two in having tiie stripes on the under parts much more developed; the crown more rufous and the upper parts also tinged with rufous and the ex|)osed parts of the wing more castaneous.

Colours of soft parts and Measurements. The hill uiay be a trifle heavier and longer than in the last but the difference is quite insigniflcant. Davison records the iris as brown, otherwise both in size and colours of soft ^tivts pileata agrees with the other races.