Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Birds Vol 1).djvu/412

366 (385) Alophoixus phæocephalus.

Vernacular names. None recorded.

Description. Crown of head, and nape blackish, each feather edged with bluish-grey; lores whitish; back, rump and upper wing-coverts olive-green, the lateral feathers of the rump washed with yellow at the tips; upper tail-coverts and tail rufous-brown; wings dark brown, the feathers rufescent on the outer webs; sides of the head and neck and a narrow half-collar on the hind-neck ashy-grey, darker posteriorly; chin and throat white; remaining lower plumage bright yellow washed with olive on the sides of the body; under wing-coverts yellow.

Colours of soft parts. "The legs, feet and claws vary from fleshy white (sometimes with a pinky tinge) to fleshy yellow; the upper mandible from dark plumbeous to dark horny brown; lower mandible and edges of upper mandible pale plumbeous; irides snuff-brown, burnt sienna-brown or reddish brown" (Hume & Davison).

Measurements. Length about 200 to 210 mm.; wing 86 to 95 mm., the female averaging some 5 mm. less than the male; tail about 70 to 90mm.; tarsus about 20 mm.; culmen 14 to 17 mm.

Distribution. The extreme South of Tenasserim to Sumatra, Java and Borneo.

Nidification. Nothing recorded.

Habits. Davison found this bird either singly or in pairs in thick forest or thin tree-jungle and, though common, never in gardens or clearings. In its general habits it closely resembles birds of the genus Criniger. It is never found on the ground.

Genus MICROSCELIS Gray, 1840.

The name Hypsipetes by which this genus of Bulbuls has hitherto been known is unfortunately preoccupied by Yypsipetes (Stephens, Syst. Brit. Ins., ii, p. 138, 1829) and the next name applicable is Microscelis of Gray (List Gen. Birds, 1840, p. 28), created for M. amaurotis, a Japanese Black Bulbul which cannot, I think, be separated generically from our Indian and Burmese forms. Haringtonia of Mathews and Iredale seems to me to be unnecessary.

The genus contains a group of Bulbuls characterized by grey and blackish plumage, red bills and long, forked tails. The bill is slender and about as long as the head, which is furnished with a long crest of pointed feathers. The rictal bristles are very short, not exceeding a third of the length of the culmen. The wing is