Genus SYLVIPARUS Burton, 1835.
This genus closely resembles Parus but differs in having a proportionately shorter, smaller bill and a square or very slightly forked tail; plumage greenish with no ventral band. There is only one species.
Sylviparus modestus.
Key to Subspecies.
A. Above olive-green, below ochraceous yellow | S. m. modestus, p. 88. |
B. Above darker and duller, below dull yellowish grey | S. m. saturatior, p. 88. |
C. Above paler and brighter, below brighter and paler and more yellow | S. m. simlaensis, p. 89. |
(70) Sylviparus modestus modestus.
The Yellow-browed Tit.
- Sylviparus modestus Burton, P. Z. S., p. 154 (1835) (Nepal); Blanf. & Oates, i, p. 53.
Vernacular names. None recorded.
Description. Upper plumage, sides of the neck, the wings and tail olive-green, the feathers of the crown centred with brown; sides of the head yellowish green slightly mottled with brown; a ring of feathers round the eye and a short eye-brow yellow; lower plumage yellow tinged with ochraceous; edge of wing and under wing-coverts bright yellow.
Colours of soft parts. Bill dark plumbeous, palest along the commissure and at base of the lower mandible; legs and feet plumbeous; iris very dark brown (Davison).
Measurements. Total length about 100 mm.; tail about 35 mm.; wing 00 to 64 mm.; tarsus about 15 mm.; culmen about 5 mm.
Distribution. Garhwal, Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan and hills N. of the Brahmaputra at least as far East as the Abor Hills.
Nidification. Nothing known.
Habits. A bird of the hills above 6,000 feet. In winter it apparently comes mucb lower, possibly on rare occasions into the plains.
(71) Sylviparus modestus simlaensis.
The Simla Yellow-browed Tit.
- Sylviparus modestus simlaensis Stuart Baker, Bull. B. O. C, xxxviii, p. 8 (1917) (Simla).
Vernacular names. None recorded.
Description. Differs from the true modestus in being a much brighter yellower green above and in being paler and purer yellow below.