Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Birds Vol 1).djvu/322

 278 TIMALIIDÆ.

Nidification. The Jsilgiri Qiiaker-B:ibbler is said to breed from January to June, generally in May and June, in the billy country from the lowest foot-hills upwards. The nest is a cup of leaves, grass and a little moss or lichen and lined with black roots. It is usually placed in a bush, 2 to 8 feet from the ground, standing in either dense forest or in scrub-jungle. The eggs are nearly always two only in number and vary in colour very greatly but the majority are of the clouded piiik type described as one of the types of the Nepal Babbler. Thirty-eight eggs average!20*0 x 15'1 mm.

Habits. This Babbler is found from the level of the plains in broken country up to some 6,0U0 feet. In habits it appears to agree well with A. p. jyliayi'ei described further on.


 * Alcippe hnicei 'H.wm.Q, J. A. 8. B., xxxix, p. 122 (1870) (Mahabaleshwar).

Vernacular names. Chit Karuvi (Tel.).

Description. A larger and much greyer bird than the last; the head and neck paler than in that bird and grading into, not contrasting with, the colour of the back; there is no rufous tinge on the rump and uppertail-coverts and the quills and tail-feathers are light brown rather than chestnut.

Colours of soft parts as in the last.

Measurements. Wing 72 to 75 mm.: bill 14 to 15 mm.

Distribution. '• Mahbaleshwar, Western Gh;its from Eajkot in Khathiavvjir to Belgaum; the Central Provinces; Pachmarhi and the Paresnath Hill, Lower Bengal"' {Ilarington). Nidification as in the last. Nearly all the eggs I have seen of this race have the ground-colour pale salmon, ^■hilst the markings consist of smears and blotches of light red and reddish brown, often covering the greater part of the surface of the whole egg. Ten eggs measure about 19-1 x 14*6 mm. Habits do not differ from those of the Nilgiri and the Arrakan Quaker-Babblers.


 * AIcip2)e phm/rei BIyth, J. A. S. B., xiv, p. 001 (1845) (Arrakan; Blanf. & Oates, i, p. 158.

Vernacular names. Dao-2)ere-gadeha (Cachari).

Description. The head and neck in this form are brownish grey gradually changing into the olive-brown of the back; the chin and throat are greyish nnd the rest of the under parts are rufescent