Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Birds Vol 1).djvu/137

some 4,000 feet lower. It is found in small companies, scrambling and climbing about bamboos, reeds and high grass, hunting for insects, on which it chiefly feeds. Its flight is weak and fluttering and its call is a loud bleat.

Genus PARADOXORNIS Gould, 1836.

The genus Paradoxornis, as restricted by Oates, contains only three species, two of which are found in India and Burma and a third heudei in Eastern China. Paradoxornis differs from Conostoma in having the feathers of the tail more graduated and the bill shorter and much deeper. The cutting-edge of the upper mandible has a deep sigmoid curve with a corresponding sinuation in the lower. The plumage is very lax and full, the wing short and rounded, the 4th, 5th, and 6th quills being subequal.

Key to Species.

A.

Throat barred black and white, bordered below with a black band ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

P. flavirostris, p. 105.

B.

Throat pale fulvous with black arrow-head markings and no band ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

P. guttaticollis, p. 106.

Fig. 22.—Head of P. flavirostris.

(90) Paradoxornis flavirostris.

Gould's Parrot-Bill.

Paradoxornis flavirostris Gould, P. Z. S., iv, p. 17 (1836) (Nepal); Blanf. & Oates, i, p. 62.

Vernacular names. Dao mougasha gadeba (Cachari); But-but Sorai (Plains Miri).

Description. Forehead, nape, sides of neck and hinder parts of ear-coverts dull chestnut; lores black; feathers round the eye and a patch under it white, the bases of the feathers more or less black; anterior two-thirds of ear-coverts and the point of the chin black; cheeks and chin white barred with black; throat black; upper plumage fulvous-brown, rufous on the tail and visible portion of wings; lower plumage fulvous.