Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Birds Vol 1).djvu/433

Rh immediate vicinity of the nest, though there may be nests of other genera within a very few feet of it. They get extraordinarily tame and I have frequently had pairs of wild birds, with nests in my garden, who would take white ants from within a few inches of my fingers and who never thought of leaving their nests when I took tit-bits of food to them or their chicks.

(404) Molpastes hæmorrhous intermedius.

.

Vernacular names. Kala painja (Chamba).

Description. Only differs from the last race in having the black of the head not extending to the back or upper breast. The ear-coverts are chocolate-brown as in the Bengal bird but the general appearance is decidedly paler.

Measurements. Wing 92 to 105 mm. It is a decidedly smaller bird than bengalensis, very few birds having the wing as much as 100 mm.

Distribution. The lower ranges of the Himalayas from the extreme North-West to about Murree, the Simla Hills, Kashmir and the North of the Punjab. Birds from Western Oudh and West Bengal are intermediate between this and the last race.

Nidification. Similar to that of the last race but it lays three eggs more often than four and the eggs themselves do not seem to go through nearly as wide a variation. The birds breed from May to July at all heights up to about 5,000 feet or higher. Forty eggs average 22.2 × 16.3 mm.

Habits similar to those of M. h. bengalensis.

(405) Molpastes leucogenys leucogenys.

Vernacular names. Manglio-kur or Mankliph-kur (Lepcha); Kundghara (Beng.); Painju (Chamba).

Description. Forehead and crest hair-brown, each feather narrowly edged with greyish white; lores black, with a white line above them; cheeks, round the eye, chin and throat black; ear-coverts white, with a black patch behind them and another patch below them striped white and brown; upper plumage olive-brown, the hinder part and sides of the neck barred with blackish, and the centres of the feathers brown; wings brown, the feathers edged with olive-brown; tail brown on the basal half, black on the terminal half and all the feathers except the two middle ones tipped