Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Birds Vol 1).djvu/338

 294 TIMALIID.T'. neutral tint, principally disposed as a ring round the larger end. They measure about 17'4 x IS-'^j mm. Mr. Stevens's nests were taken on the 29th May and 3rd June at about 9,000 feet.

Habits. Stevens found them in pairs haunting shrubs in dense forest between G,000 and 9,000 feet elevation. Subfamily SIBIIN^.*. This subfamily' differs from the Timalnna- in having longer wings and com]mratively shorter, weaker tarsi and feet. Togetlier with these features they have different habits, as one would have expected. They are strictly arboreal, seldom, if ever, feeding on the ground, nor do they scramble and climb about the under- growth but hop from one branch to another, take easily to flight, and are not nearly so noisy as the last group of biixls. The sexes are alike in plumage and often brightly coloured. This subfamil}' remains much as in Blanford and Gates, but the genus Zosterops is removed en bloc to a family by itself, Zosteropido' of Sharpe. The genus Aciinochira I retain iu this subfamily with some doubt, as in many ways it approaches the previous subfamily, especially in its nidification, but on the whole it appears to be properly placed where it is. A>7/ io Genera. A. Tail riearlj^ twice the leiif>th of wing Sibia, p. 295. B. Tail and wing not differing much in length. a. Tail-featheis graduated. a'. All the tail-feathers graduated. a". Tail longer than wing; the outer tail-featliers falling short of tip of tail by a distance equal to length of tarsu.s. a". Wings not barred Leioptila, p. 1^96. b'". Wings barred AcTiNOcrRA, p. 303. h". Tail not longer than wing; the outer tail-feathers falling short of the tip of tail by less than the length of tarsus. c'". Nostrils not overhung by hairs; wings barred Ixops, p. 307. d'". Nostrils overhung by hairs and wings not barred Staphidia. p. 309. Gates realized their close connection with the TunUclcB but placed them in his Cratertypoilid (p. on the ground that the plumage of the young was like that of the parent, whereas it has been proved that in Larvivora, BracliypieriiA- and Drymochares all have spotted young. The genera Myiophoneus and Arrcnga are true Thrushes; FJaj)hror)iis appears to be a Warbler somewhere near Trihura; Tet^ia and Oligura are Wrens, Troglodyiida; and the other genera short-winged Chat.s which may be retained in a subfamily, Brachyptcrj/ipiKS, in the Turdidce. Alt these genera will be found in their appropriate places in future volumes.
 * The subfainily Bmcln/plrri/i/incB does not belong to the Tuiialiidce at all.