with narrow pale edges; lores white; sides of the head and neck, back, wing-coverts and inner secondaries paler brown tinged with rufous, the feathers of the back with white shafts; rump and upper tail-coverts ferruginous; tail reddish brown, both tail and inner secondaries cross-rayed with blackish; primaries and outer secondaries black; chin and throat dark brown, each feather with a broad ashy margin; breast brown with broad white shaft-streaks; abdomen, vent and under tail-coverts deep ferruginous; tail tipped paler below.
Colours of soft parts. Iris creamy or yellowish white; orbital skin pale yellow; bill, legs and feet pale yellow or fleshy-yellow.
Measurements. Length about 250 to 260 mm.; wing 97 to 105 mm.; tail about 100 mm.; tarsus about 32 mm.; culmen about 20 to 21 mm.
This species is easily distinguished from all others by its rufous rump and tail and deep ferruginous lower parts.
Distribution. Travancore to Bombay along the West Coast.
Nidification. This Babbler breeds throughout its range in practically every month of the year. The nest is made of grass, occasionally mixed with grass-roots, fine twigs, etc., and lined with fine roots or grass-stems. It is placed in a bush or small tree, very often in date-palms. The eggs which number two or three, very rarely four, are of the usual glossy deep blue and thirty-six average about 24·2 × 19·5 mm.
Habits. Those of the genus.
(189) Turdoides rufescens.
The Ceylonese Babbler.
- Malacocercus rufescens Blyth, J. A. S. B., xvi, p. 453 (1847) (Ceylon).
- Crateropus rufescens. Blanf. & Oates, i, p. 114.
Vernacular names. None recorded.
Description. Whole upper plumage and exposed parts of wings rufous-brown; lower plumage ferruginous, browner on flanks, vent and under tail-coverts; tail faintly cross-rayed.
Measurements. Length about 250 to 200 mm.; wing about 96 to 104 mm.; tail about 115 to 120 mm.; tarsus about 32 mm.; culmen about 19 to 20 mm.
Colours of soft parts. Iris white, yellowish white or greenish white; bill orange-yellow, deepest on the basal half; legs and feet dull chrome-yellow, claws yellowish-horn; orbital skin and eyelid pale greenish yellow (Legge).
Distribution. Ceylon, throughout the damper portions.
Nidification. According to Legge this Babbler breeds in March, April and May, making a nest similar to that of striatus but very carefully concealed. Two eggs taken by Mr. MacVicar at
