upper parts by a broad black band. Tail often nearly black at the end.
Colours of soft parts and Measurements as in horsfieldi.
Distribution. Practically the whole of S. India, South of the range of P. h. horsfieldi, wherever there are hills and mountains.
Nidification. This bird breeds in great numbers in the Nilgiris and commonly in many other places between 2,000 and 8,000 feet. It makes the usual globular nest of grass, more or less mixed with leaves, bracken and roots, very flimsily put together and placed either on the ground or low down in some bush. Many authors describe the full clutch as four or five, but over the greater part of its range two or three is probably the normal number. They are, of course, the usual pure white, and ten eggs average about 26·5 × 19·7 mm. They breed in December to March on the West Coast but during March, April and May in the Nilgiris and higher hills.
Habits. A gregarious bird, going about in parties from half-a-dozen to a dozen or more, working through the low bushes, or on the ground under them, for insects. They employ a variety of soft, rather musical notes, bursting into a chorus of abuse and loud language when frightened or annoyed. Their call-note is the usual hoot hoot of the family.
(209) Pomatorhinus horsfieldi melanurus.
The Ceylon Scimitar-Babbler.
- Pomatorhinus melanurus Blyth, J. A. S. B., xvi, p. 481 (1847) (Ceylon); Blanf. & Oates, i, p. 118.
Vernacular names. None recorded.
Description. Similar to horsfieldi horsfieldi but with no demarcations between the plumage of the upper parts and the sides of the breast and neck, the latter being of the same ferruginous brown as the former; the tail is very dark marked with ferruginous at the base.
Colours of soft parts. Iris reddish brown to dull red; orbital skin and eyelid dull blue; bill pale to dark yellow, blackish on the base; legs and feet slaty or greenish plumbeous; feet generally more bluish than tarsi, claws dusky-horny.
Measurements. Length about 210 to 215 mm.; wing about 86 to 94 mm.; tail about 95 mm.; tarsus about 30 mm.; culmen about 25 to 26 mm.
Distribution. Ceylon only.
The description given above is for the individuals obtained in the South, where heat and humidity are at their greatest. Birds obtained on the Horton Plains and at the highest altitudes are more olive than rufous and paler, less rich, in coloration throughout. I cannot, however, on the material available define the habitat of either form, and therefore refrain from naming another new race.
