Nidification. Breeds in Sikkiin from the end of April to the end of June, making a globular nest of grass and bamboo leaves, sometimes lined with finer grass, but generally unlined. The nest is placed either on, or quite close to, the ground, generally in dense undergrowth, less often in bamboo or thinner jungle. The eggs, either three or four in number, according to Hodgson sometimes five, are the usual pure white, and twenty eggs average about 23·5 × 17·7 mm.
Habits. This bird is generally found at considerable heights from 4,000 feet up to at least 6,000 feet, seldom breeding below the former. Its habits differ in no way from those of the better known phayrei.
(211) Pomatorhinus ferruginosus phayrei.
Phayre's Coral-billed Scimitar-Babbler.
- Pomatorhinus phayrei PAyth, J. A. S. B., xvi, p. 462 (1847) (Arrakan); Blanf. & Oates, i, p. 121.
Vernacular names. Dao-buku-gajao (Cachavi); Inrui-gojo (Kacha Naga).
Description. Similar to the last, but the upper plumage olive-brown with no rufous tinge; above the white supercilium there is a trace of a black line; the under parts are much more rufous. The crown is practically concolorous with the back.
Colours of soft parts and Measurements as ferruginosus.
Distribution. Hills South of the Brahmaputra, Chin Hills and Arrakan Yomas.
Nidification. Breeds in considerable numbers in the Khasia and N. Cachar Hills between 3,000 and 5,000 feet, most commonly at 3,000 to 3,500 feet. The nest is the usual football-shaped affair, lying on its side, very loosely and untidily made, principally of bamboo leaves and bracken, more or less mixed with grass, roots and a few leaves. In most nests there is no true lining but, in a few, fine grass is used for this purpose. The entrance, which may be anything up to 4″ wide, is at one end lovv down and the ends of the materials stick out all round, half hiding it from sight. The nest is sometimes placed on the ground, but far more often in bushes some feet above it, and I have taken one nest which lay on the top of a bush about 7 feet up, easily visible from the hill-path above but looking like a mass of rubbish blown together by the wind against a jutting branch. Three is the number of eggs most often laid, sometimes four, frequently two only. Fifty eggs average 27·1 × 19·1 mm. The breeding season lasts from May to July but I have seen nests with eggs both in April and late August.
Habits. Phayre's Scimitar-Babbler is a bird of thick forest and dense undergrowth, found but little in bamboo-jungle and still less in the grass-covered hills, except in the mornings and evenings
