Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Birds Vol 1).djvu/510

 464 TROGLODYTIDiE. through the eye is acquired during the summer «ith the com- pletion of the first plumage, but the full brightupss of the adult plumage not until the following moult.

Distribution. Garhwal, ]N'epal, Sikkim, the whole of Assam jSTorth and South of the Brahmaputra, Chin, Kachin Hills and pos- sibly Annum. McClelland's oliveci, a name given to Assam birds, cannot stand, as the Assam birds differ in no way from the JS'epal and Sikkim birds and I have seen specimens from the Kachin Hills every bit as bright above and as dark below as any specimen from those countries. They vary very greatly individually and large series are necessary for comparison.

Nidification. The Slaty-bellied Wren breeds in April, May and June South of the Brahma)iutra and in June and July North of it, at all heights between o,000 and 10,000 feet. The nest is a beautiful ball of bright green moss lined with moss roots and measuring some 5 inches in diameter, or, according to Hodgson, more oval in shape, measuring about 7x5 inches. It may be placed either in a tangle of creepers or in dense, long moss against a tree or stump, or may be built in amongst the numerous branches of a thick, low bush, whilst, very rarely, it may be placed on a steep bank or against a rock or heap of boulders. The eggs number three or four, very rarely five and vary con- siderably in appearance. The ground-colour is a very pale pink, often with a yellowish-salmon tint; the markings consist of reddish-pink specks and spots, sometimes so fine and so numerous as to make the eggs look an almost uniform terra-cotta, at other times sparser and much bolder, showing up well against the ground-colour and more numerous at the larger end than else- where. In shape they are normally rather long but blunt ovals. Fifty eggs average 17*4 x 12-9 mm. and the extremes are: maxima, IQl X 131 and 17-9 x 13-6 mm.; minima, 16'8 X 13-2 and 18-0 X 12-0 mm.

Habits. This Wren is found over a greater range of altitude than any of the others with the exception of the next bird. It is certainly found up to at least 10,000 feet in Sikkim in summer, whilst, on the other hand, Stevens found it right down amongst the foothills and broken ground on the JN^orth bank of the Brah- maputra, but it must be remembered that in temperature the plains of North and North-East Assam are equivalent to an altitude of at least 2,000 feet South of the river and in Burma. It is a purely forest bird, preferring forests which have an ample undergrowth in which it can skulk about without showing itself. It is very loth to take flight and if one can mark it into a dense isolated bush it can easily be caught with a butterfly net. It much affects the vicinity of tiny water-courses through boulders and dense evergreen forest, and its high, shrill note may be heard mornings and evenings above the ripple of the water. It is exclusively insectivorous.