Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Birds Vol 1).djvu/357

 SIVA. '6V6


 * Siva strigula Hodgs., Tnd. Rev., 1838, p. 89 (Nepal); Blanf. & Oates, i, p. 208.

Vernacular names. Majhlim (Lepcha).

Description. Porebead, crown and nape bright orange-brown; a ring of yellowish feathers round the eye; sides of head grey, mottled with whitish and dusky; upper plumage slaty-green; middle pair of tail-feathers chestnut-red on half the inner and one-third the outer webs at the base, the remaining two-thirds black tipped with white; the next pair black with a trace of red at the base and tipped yellow; the other feathers black with increasingly broad yellow tips, the outermost pair being all of this colour: wing-coverts and winglet like the back; primary- coverts black; primaries and outer secondaries black, the outer

webs edged with orange, changing to yellow near the tips, inner secondaries chiefly slatj^-grey on the outer webs and black on the inner and tipped with white; chin orange-yellow; throat pale yellow, with narrow crescentic black cross-bars; a narrow moustachial stripe and a patch on the side of the neck black; I'emaining lower plumage bright yellow, tinged with olivaceous on the sides of the breast and abdomen.

Colours of soft parts. Iris dark reddish-brown; upper mandible dark brown, lower mandible light greyish-brown, tip w'hite; legs and feet grey, claws light brown.

Measurements. Total length about 165 mm.; wing 64 to 69 mm.; tail about 70 to 72 mm.; tarsus about 25 mm.; culmeu 12 to 13 mm. "The young appear to have the crown light golden yellow inter- mingled with grey, and to have the bars on the throat less developed '' {Oates).

Distribution. The Himalayas from the Sutlej Valley to Eastern Assam JVorth and South of the Brahmaputra Valley.

Nidification. The Stripe-throated Siva breeds in May and June at heights between 4,000 and 9,000 feet or higher, making a neat ciip-shaped nest of moss, roots and bamboo leaves, sometimes with a few other dead leaves aud reed-stems and lined with roots.