Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Birds Vol 1).djvu/369

 EHPOUN1S. 325 the bill is slender and about as long as the head, with the tip well bent down; the nostrils are covered by a few long hairs and the rictal bristles are strong; the head is crested, the wing rather long and pointed and the tail perfectly square. The plumage is green.


 * Erpornis xantholeuca Ilodo-s., J. A. S. B., xiii, p. 380 (1844) (Nepal).
 * Herponiis xantholettca. Blanf. & Oates, i, p. 219.

Vernacular names. Dumj-pu-jJio (Lepcha),

Description. Whole upper plumage, visible wings and tail clear greenish yellow; lores, cheeks and lower plumage white, slightly tinged with grey; ear-coverts ashy-white; under ^ving-coverts pale yellow; under tail-coverts bright yellow.

Colours of soft parts. Iris brown or red-brown; bill pale fleshy horn-colour, the edges of the commissure, lower bill and gape brighter, paler fleshy; mouih and extreme corner of gape yellow; legs and feet flesh-colour or yellowish flesh-colour.

Measurements. Length about 120 mm.; wing 63 to 70 mm.; tail about 45 mm.; tarsus about 16 mm.; culmen 10 to 10*5 mm.

Distribution. The Himalayas from Nepal to Assam, both North and South of the Brahmaputra, Manipur and practically the whole of Burma, Siam and N. Malay Peninsula.

Nidification. The White-bellied Herpornis breeds from practically the level of the plains up to some 3,000 feet but more often below 1,500 feet than over. The nest is a cradle of fine roots, mixed with fibres and fine grass stems and lined with the latter. It may be pendent in a horizontal fork or just hanging from a few twigs either of bamboo or some shrub within a few feet of the ground. Hopwood took its nest in Burma in March but in India it breeds in April and May. Its nest is built either in evergreen forest, mixed bamboo and scrub or in bushes in thin cover. The eggs are two or three in number, the ground-colour white or, rarely, creamy-white and the markings consist of sparse blotches of pale reddish, generally confined to the larger end. The texture is faintly glossy and is stout for the size of the eggs; in shape they are rather long ovals and twenty eggs average 16-7 X 12-6 mm., the extremes being 18'8 X 14-0 aiul 15-2xl2'0mm. In each of