Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Birds Vol 1).djvu/504

 458 TROGLODYTIU.E. (^71) Pnoepyga squamata squamata. The Scaly-beeasteu When. Microura squamata Gould, Icon. Aves, pi. v (1837) (Cacliar). Pnoejn/ga squamata. Blanf. & Oates, i, p. 342.

Vernacular names. MarclwTc-boncj (Lepcha); Inrui-ha gadiha (Kacha iSaga).

Description. — Adult male. Whole upper plumage and lesser wing-coverts rich golden-brown, the forehead, feathers above the eye and sides of neck with fulvous shaft-stripes, the remaining upper plumage with fulvous subterminal drops and with black edges, the latter becomiug bolder on the rump where the drops otten become bars; median and greater coverts brown, broadly edged with chestnut-brown and often with terminal fulvous spots; primaries and secondaries chestnut-brown on the visible portions and the innermost secondaries often tipped with fulvous; chin and throat , white with brown edges to the feathers; breast and centre of the abdomen white, the feathers with broad black centres and edges; sides of the breast and flanks fulvous-brown with similar dark centres and margins; under tail-coverts and vent fulvous.

Colours of soft parts. Iris bright hazel to deep brown; bill horny-brown above, pale fleshy-horny on lower mandible, gape and commissure; legs tleshy-brow n to light brown.

Measurements. Length about 100 mm.; wing 59 to 64 mm.; tail about 14 mm.; tarsus 21 to "2;i mm.; culmen 11 to 12 mm. Adult female. Similar to the male but with the whole lower pluuiage fulvous instead of white, every part marked as in the male, though in some specimens the chin and throat are almost immaculate.

Distribution. The Himalayas from the Sutlej Valley to Eastern Assam, both North and South of the Brahmaputra; Chin Hills and West and South-West Burma to Tenasserim.

Nidification. The Scaly-breasted Wren breeds from the end of April to the middle of June between 3,500 and 7,000 feet. It makes two very distinct types of nest, either of which is among the most beautiful specimens of birds' architecture. That most coHjmonly made is built in and of the long strands of brilliant green moss which clothes the trunks and branches of so many trees "in the more humid forests. The inner strands are compactly and firmly woven together to form a tiny cup, well lined with black moss roots, over all of which the outer green strands fall in natural profusion so that the tiny entrance, little more than an inch across, can never be found without most careful search. The second type of nest is a tiny ball of the same brilliant green moss, tightly wedged in amongst the masses of orchids, ferns and creepers growing over trees, dead and alive, or fallen logs. A tnird type of nest, a cup-shaped one of moss, was found by Mandelli in a bush.