Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Birds Vol 1).djvu/302

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260 TIMALIID.l'.

Distribution. The extreme South of Tenasserim, extending' down the Malay Peninsula to Sumatra and liorneo.

Nidification and Habits. Nothing recorded beyond the fact that Hume asserts it is arboreal. Genus MALACOCINCLA Biittik., 1895. The genus Malaeocinda differs from all the other genera of this subfamily with stout straight bills in having the nostrils oval and exposed, with no protecting membrane. The rictal bristles are well developed but there are no hairs overhanging the nostrils. The tail is shorter than the wing. The name Turdinus being preoccupied, the above takes its place.


Fig. 48.—Head of M. s. abbotti.


(207) Malacocincla sepiaria abbotti.

Abbott's Babbler.

Malacocincla ahhotti lilytb, J. A. S. B., xiv, p. 601 (IB-lo) (Ramree Arrakan).
Turdinus abbotti. Blanf. & Oates, i, p. 154.

Vernacular names. None recorded.

Description. Whole upper plumage rich olive-brown, the fore- head with fulvous streaks, the other feathers with pale shafts; exposed parts of wing-quills like the back; upper tail-coverts and tail deep rufous; lores round the eye and a short supercilium dark grey; ear-coverts rufous with fulvous shafts; chin, throat and cheeks pale grey; sides of neck, breast and body earthy ferruginous, centre of breast and abdomen whitish; under tail- coverts bright ferruginous.

Colours of soft parts. Iris light reddish brown to red; eyelids plumbeous; upper mandible dark horny-brown, tip and lower mandible pale horny or bluish-horny; legs and feet pale fleshy, claws pale horny.

Measurements. Total length about ISO mm.; wing 74 to 77 mm.; tail about 50 to 52 mm.; tarsus about 25 mm.; culmen about 18 mm.

Distribution. Nepal, Sikkim, E. Bengal, Assam, Burma to the Malay Peninsula, and Siam.