Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Birds Vol 1).djvu/144

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112
PARADOXORNITHIDÆ.

olive-brown; the primaries edged externally with white, the secondaries and tertiaries broadly edged with bright orange-brown; the priniary-coverts brown, forming a conspicuous patch on the upper portion of the wing; tail brown, the outer edges of the feathers bright rufous-brown for three-fourths of their length from the base; lores, cheeks and a long supercilium white; the white of the cheeks extending on to the sides of the neck; ear-coverts brown; chin and throat black, shading into grey on the upper breast; abdomen and under tail-coverts bright orange-brown.

"Upper mandible horny, lower fleshy-yellow; legs and feet fleshy-brown. Length about 4" (100 mm.), wing 1·8" (45 mm.), tail 1·9" (48 mm.), bill 0·3" (7 mm.), tarsus 0·9" (22·8 mm.)." (Bingham.)

Bingham's Suthora is only a race of gularis (verreauxi Sharpe, Cat. B.M.), differing from that bird in having the abdomen and under tail-coverts orange-brown instead of white.

Distribution. Mekong water-shed, Kentung State, Shan Hills.

Nidification unknown.

Habits. This little Suthora is evidently a bird of very high elevations, only having been found by Bingham at 8,500 feet.

(99) Suthora webbiana brunnea.

Anderson's Suthora.

Suthora brunnea Anderson, P. Z. S., 1871, p. 211 (Yunnan); Blanf. & Oates, i, p. 68, footnote.

Vernacular names. None recorded.

Description. The whole head and neck all round with the breast chestnut-brown, suffused with vinaceous below: the upper plumage, wing-coverts, tail and exposed parts of closed wing olive-brown; lower plumage yellowish brown.

Colours of soft parts. Iris deep red; bill yellow horny, pale except on the culmen; legs greenish plumbeous or slaty brown.

Measurements. Total length about 125 to 130 mm.; wing 51 to 54 mm.; tail about 60 to 65 mm.; tarsus about 20 mm.; culmen about 7 mm.

Distribution. Yunnan and the Kachin Hills from Bhamo eastwards.

Nidification. This bird has been found breeding commonly in Sinlum-Kaba, Bhamo District, at an elevation of some 6,000 feet. Harington describes the nest as "a rather deep cup-shaped structure composed of bamboo-leaves and coarse blades of grass,