Colours of soft parts. Iris brown to red-brown; bill wax-yellow; legs and feet slaty-grey or plumbeous tinted with blue or green; "legs and claws green" (Cockburn).
Measurements. Rather smaller than the last; tail about 100 mm.; wing 80 to 85 mm.; culmen about 8 to 9 mm.; tarsus about 26 mm.
Distribution. Hills south of Brahmaputra, N. Lakhimpur, hills of N. Burma, Shan States into western China.
Nidification. Similar to that of the last bird but probably never breeds below 3,000 feet and seldom under 4,000 feet. The eggs also are indistinguishable and the average of 34 is 22·2 × 16·4 mm.
Habits. The same as those of flavirostris, but whereas that bird is most comnon at low levels this is found at much higher levels and never, so far as has been recorded, in the plains or foot-hills.
Genus SUTHORA Hodgson, 1838.
The genus Suthora is one which has been much split up by some Ornithologists. Harington accepted Heteromorpha, Chleuasicus, Suthora and Neosuthora as good genera. Whilst, however, the last named is sharply divided from the others by its very short tail, I can find no generic differences between the three first and retain them all under Suthora.
The characteristics of the genus are the short, thick bill, a trifle longer than deep, the culmen strongly curved but with the com- missure almost straight. The nostrils are very small, circular, and completely concealed by plumules. The sixth primary is a little longer than the fifth and seventh or subequal. The tail-feathers are long and narrow and greatly graduated, the outer being about half the length of the central. The plumage is soft and full and there is a short thick crest.
Key to Species and Subspecies.
| A. |
A well-defined supercilium of black or brown.
|
| a. |
Whole upper plumage olive-brown.
....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
|
S. unicolor, p. 108. |
| b. |
Crown ashy-brown, remaining upper plumage orange-brown
....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
|
S. nepalensis, p. 109. |
| c. |
Crown and upper parts all orange-brown.
|
| a'. |
Ear-coverts slaty blue-grey.
|
| a''. |
Breast and abdomen pale grey
....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
|
S. poliotis poliotis, p. 109. |
| b''. |
Breast and abdomen orange-fulvous
....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
|
S. p. ripponi, p. 111. |
| b'. |
Ear-coverts orange-chestnut
....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
|
S. p. humii, p. 110. |
