296 timaliim:.
Habits. This beautiful Sibia is not uncommon from 3,000 to 8,000 feet, frequenting forests in small parties or in pairs and feeding largely on the insects which are found in flowering trees, such as the cotton-tree etc. They are not noisy birds but frequently utter a note which Jerdon terms "a sort of whistling call," shrill but not unpleasant. According to [Stevens it is found in the foot-hills in Lakhimpur in January and February in flocks numbering as many as twenty. Genus LEIOPTILA Blyth, 1847. Differs chiefly from Sibia in its much shorter tail; this is longer than the wing and well graduated, the outermost feather reaching a little beyond the middle of the tail. The rictal bristles are a little longer than in Sibia and there is a full crest in all the species. Key to Species and Subspecies. A. Crown of head black or brown. <i. Median pair of tail-feathers with a subterminal black band. a'. Rump and upper tail-coverts rufous. [p. 296. a". Darker; breast rufous i. capisfruta ccqmtrataj b". Paler; breast pale pinkish-' rufous L.c. pallida, p. 298. b'. Rump and upper tail-coverts ashy . L. gracilis, p. 298, b. Median pair of tail-t'eathers uniform brown or black with a white tip. c . Rump and upper tail-coverts choco- late-brown. t". Inner secondaries black. a" . Tapper plumage brownish black L. 1)1. melanoleuca, p. 299. h'" . Upper plumage deeper black. L. m. radcliffei, p. 300. d" . Inner secondaries chiefly chest- nut L. castanoptera, p. 300. d'. Rump chestnut. e". Wing-coverts margined with ashy and chestnut. [p. 300. c'". Chestnut of back paler .... L. annectens annecfens, d!" . Chestnut of back darker .... L. a. saiuraia, p. 301. /". Wing-coverts entirely black .. Z. a. f?«moH?, p. 302. B. Crown of head bluish-grey like the upper back L. ■pulchella pidchella, p. .302.
(311) Leioptila capistrata capistrata.
The Black-headed Sibia.
- Cmclosoma capistratum Vigors, P. Z. S., 1831, p. 56 (Himalayas) (Darjiling).
- Lioptila capistrata. Blanf. & Oates, i, p. 196.
Vernacular names. Sambriah-pho {Ije^oiwi); Sesigona (Rhut.); Sibya (Nep.).
