Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Birds Vol 1).djvu/364

320 Colours of soft parts. Iris red-brown; bill reddish brown; feet orange-buff, claws horuy-brown (Scully).

Measurements. Total length about 125 mm.; wing 59 to 62 mm.; tail about 50 mm.; tarsus about 18 mm.; culmen 11 to 12 mm.

Distribution. Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan.

Nidification and Habits, Nothing recorded. It is a bird of high levels, not being found below 6,000 feet and ascending up to 10,000.


 * Polyodon niqrimcntwn Hodgs., Gray"s Zool. Misc., p. 82 (1844) (Nepal).
 * Fuhina nigriinentum. Blanf. & Oates, i, p. 212.

Vernacular names. 'furringiwj-jylio (Lepcha).

Description. Forehead and crest black, each feather margined with grey; nape and sides of head grey; lores and chin black; upper plumage and tail dull olive-green; primaries and secondaries brown, narrowly margined with olive-green; throat white; re- mainder of lower plumage fulvous, tinged with rufous.

Colours of soft parts. Iris hazel; bill dusky above, the lower mandible pale and reddish; feet and legs reddish yellow.

Measurements. Total length about 115 mm.; wing 54 to 57 mm.; tail about o8 to 40 mm.; tarsus about 16 to 17mm.; culmen about 10 to 11 mm.

Distribution. The Himalayas from Garhwal to Assam ]S"orth and iSouth of the Brahmaputra, Manipur. Chin Hills and N. Arrakan.

Nidification. This little Yuliina breeds from 4,000 feet upwards throughout its range in the months of May, June and July. It makes a beautiful cradle-shaped nest of moss roots, a tiny scrap or two of moss and a Hniug of the finest grass stems. It is placed either in amongst the pendent roots of overhanging banks or in amongst the lichen on the lower side of dead branches, in nearly all cases well concealed and difiicult to find. They measure only about 80 to 90 mm. in diameter by about 65 mm. in depth. The eggs number three or four and are pale sea-green in colour, lightly marked all over with freckles of reddish, and they measure about 10-5 X 12-2 mm.

Habits. This little Tuhina keeps much to the higher branches of medium-sized and high trees, hunting about for insects in the manner of Titmouses, as often hanging head downwards from the under side as scurrying along the upper, or even clinging, Tree-creeper like, to the bark of the trunk itself. They collect in flocks of some size and keep up a constant " chip, chip " the whole time, occasionally breaking out into a louder, shriller call.