Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Birds Vol 1).djvu/366

 :322 timaliim;.

Measurements. Total length about 130mni.; wiug 64 to 68mm.; tail about 50 to 52 mm.; tarsus about;20 mm.; culmeu about 10 mm.

Distribution. Garhvval, Xepal, Sikkim and Bhutan to the extreme east of Assam, Manipur and the Chittagong Hill tracts.

Nidification. This Ixulus breeds between 4,000 and 7,000 feet in May and June, the nest varying very greatly in character, shape and position. Normally it is domed and placed either on or close to the ground, but sometimes it is semi-domed or merely deep cup-shaped and may be built in a branch of a tree or shrub, in amongst the lichen and moss hanging from a trunk or bough, or it may even be placed in a niche in a rock. The material used is always chiefly moss but this may be mixed to a lesser or greater extent with roots and chips of leaves or bracken, the lining being of roots alone. The eggs number three or four and are in every respect just like those of our English Swallow but the markings are more numerous as well as bolder and larger. Sixty eggs average 19"3x 14-2 mm. and the extremes are 21'3 X 14-0 mm., 20-1 X 15-0 mm. and IT'S X 14-0 mm.

Habits. These are just like those of Yuhina. They fly well, and their note is a rather sweet, soft chatter. They are very arboreal and may sometimes be seen on the highest trees. They keep almost exclusively to evergreen forest.


 * Yuhina flavicollis Hodgs., As. Kes., xix, p. 167 (1836) (Nepal).
 * Ixulus flavicollis. Blanf, & Oates, i, p. 218.

Vernacular names. Srip-chong-plw (Lepcha).

Description. Forehead and crest rich brown; hinder part of crown, nape and sides of the head mouse-grey, the lower part of the ear-coverts bronze-grey; lores and moustachial streak black; a white ring round eye; a broad rusty-yellow collar round the hind neck; upper plumage olive-brown, the shafts of the feathers of the back pale; upper tail-coverts tinged with fulvous; tail and wings like the back but less olive, the primaries narrowly edged with white; chin and cheeks white; throat white with a few narrow ochraceous streaks and with dark shafts; middle of breast and abdomen pale fulvous; vent and under tail-coverts deep fulvous; flanks and sides of breast ochraceous, streaked with white; under wing- coverts white.

Colours of soft parts. Iris reddish brown or hazel; bill dark horny, the lower mandible paler and rather fleshy; legs and feet fleshy-brown or yellowish brown.

Measurements. Length about 130 mm.; wiug 62 to 67 mm.; tail about 50 mm.; tarsus about 20 mm.; culmen about 10 to 11 mm.