Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Birds Vol 2).djvu/178

164 or less whitish ; wings black, the quills and coverts all tipped and margined with white ; tail very dark brown, tipped white ; sides of the head grey with white shaft-streaks ; the lower parts grey and marked in the same manner as the upper plumage, but with more conspicuous black tips and subterminal white patches. In August the nearly adult plumage is assumed by a moult, but the new feathers of each side of the head, of the throat, breast, and middle of the abdomen, and sometimes those of the crown and back, are fringed with white, and the wing-coverts and quills are conspicuously margined with white. The fully adult plumage is assumed in the first spring by the casting of the white fringes.

Bill black ; legs pale brown ; soles of the feet yellow ; iris dark brown (Jerdon ). Length about 8; tail 2-2; wing 3'9 ; tarsus 1-15; bill from gape 1'05.

Distribution. The Himalayas from Afghanistan and Grilgit to Bhutan at elevations from 1000 to 14,000 feet, according to season. This species occurs in the North Khasi hills, specimens from that locality being in the National Collection. It extends into Turkestan.

Habits, $c. Breeds throughout the Himalayas at all levels from December to May. The nest is a rounded ball of moss lined with ferns and roots, with an opening at the side, wedged into a deft of a rock near water and not far above its surface. The eggs, generally five in number, are white and measure about 1 by '72.

710. Cinclus pallasi. Pallas's Dipper.

Cinclus pallasii, Temm. Man. (VOrn. ed. 2, i, p. 177 (1820) ; Salvin, Ibis, 1867, p. 118 j Hume, S. F. vii, p. 378 ; id. Cat. no. 349 bis ; Sharpe, Cat. B. M. vi, p. 316 ; Hume, S. F. xi, p. 124.

Coloration. The whole plumage with the lesser wing-co verts a very rich dark chocolate-brown ; the eyelids clothed with white feathers ; the abdomen blackish ; greater wing-coverts dark brown, edged with chocolate-brown ; wings and tail blackish, suffused with chocolate-brown on the outer webs.

The young differ markedly from those of 0. asiaticus. The whole upper plumage and the sides of the head and neck are blackish brown with subterminal rufous margins ; the wings and coverts with white, or on some of the feathers slightly rufous, edges ; tail black, narrowly tipped with white ; the whole lower plumage blackish brown, with ashy fringes to all the feathers.

Another bird, which has just completed its first autumn moult, resembles the adult, but the throat, breast, and middle of the abdomen are mottled with white and the wings retain their white edges.

Iris hazel ; bill horny ; legs plumbeous in front, dusky behind (Cockburn).