Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Birds Vol 1).djvu/358

 314 TIMALIIDÆ. It is placed either in a high bush or a small sapling in forest, either pine, fir or other kinds. The eggs vary from two to four and are a bright pale blue in colour with a few specks or spots of black, .^r reddish, or reddish brown. They measure according to llodgsQn between 20-0 to 22-S in length and between 15-2 to lG-5 in breadth but nine eggs in my own collection measure only 19'6 x 14'9 mm.

Habits. This bird, like others of the genus, goes about in small flocks, haunting both the higher trees and scrub- and bush-jungle, though it keeps more to the former than the latter.


 * Siva castaneicauda Hume, S. F., v. p. 100 (1877) (Muleyit); Blanf. & Oates, i, p. 209.

Vernacular names. None recorded.

Description. Differs from the last bird in the much greater extent of red on the tail; the sides of the head are blackish and the ring of yellow round the eye brighter and more conspicuous.

Colours of soft parts. Iris deep brown; upper mandible brown, lower flesiiy; legs and feet dingy glaucous-blue. Measurements as in the last. I cannot find that the average size of the bill is any bigger. Oates says that the bill is much larger but gives no details.

Distribution. The whole of Burma, througliout the hills from Tenasserim to the Chin aud Kachin Hills and 8iam. It is extremely difficult to define the limits of these two races. Birds from the extreme South and East of Burma are quite different from those of the Western Himalayas to Sikkim, but birds from Assam to W. Central Burma are intermediate, having the sides of the head little darker than in typical strigula, yet with nearly as much red on the tail as castaneicmida; the Chin Hills birds are a step nearer the latter, whilst those from Yunnan, the Shan States and all Eastern and Southern Burma are practically identical with that form.

Nidification and Habits as far as is known like those of the last bird. A single egg taken by Mr. W. A. T. Kellow measures 18-4 X 15-6 mm.

{{c|{{larger|(335) Siva cyanouroptera cyanouroptera. Hodgson's Blue-winged Siva. Sira cyanouroptera Hodgs., lud. llev.jlSSS, p. 88 (Nepal); Blanf. & Oates, i, p. 209.

Vernacular names. Meghlhn adum (Lepcha).

Description. Forehead, crown, nape and hind neck pale blue, the sides of the crown deeper blue, the forehead and antedor part of the crown streaked with brown; lores, round the eyes and a broad