Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Birds Vol 1).djvu/235

b. Chin and throat immaculate white or pale fulvous.

a' . Lower plumage pale fulvous.

a". Above reddish brown ............................................. A. caudata caudata, p. 198.

b". Above more grey-brown ........................................ A. c. huttoni, p. 199.

b'. Lower plumage ferruginous ........................................ A. gidaris, p. 199.

B. Head not streaked, back with oval brown spots ...................... A. maleolmi, p. 200.

C. No streaks or spots on head or upper plumage.

c. Chin and throat rufous, lores dark ..................................... A. subrufa, p. 201.

d. Chin, upper throat and lores white .................................... A. longirostris, p. 202.

(191) Argya earlii.

The Striated Babbler.

Malanocerctis earlii Blyth, J. A. S. B., xvii, p. 369 (1844) (Calcutta).

Argya earlii. Blanf. & Oates, i, p. 105.

Vernacular names. Barra-phenya (Hindi).

Description. Upper plumage brown tinged with rufous, the feathers of the crown largely centred with very dark brown, those

Fig. 32. — Head of A. earlii.

of the back with very dark shaft-stripes; upper tail-coverts obsoletely dark-shafted; tail brown, the shafts darker and the feathers cross-rayed; wings brown, the lesser coverts dark-centred; lores grey; cheeks and ear-coverts plain rufescent; chin, throat and breast the same, the dark stripes increasing in size downwards; remainder of lower plumage pale buffy-brown, albescent in the middle of the abdomen.

Colours of soft parts. Iris bright yellow; eyelid plumbeous; bill fleshy-yellow, the culmen, nostril and tip darker horn-colour; mouth yellow; legs plumbeous or fleshy-plumbeous, claws pinkish.

Measurements. Length about 140 mm.; wing 85 to 93 mm.; tail about 120 to 130 mm.; culmen about 20 mm.; tarsus about 32 mm.

Distribution. From Sind to the Run of Cutch, along the base of the Himalayas to Behar, all over Behar and Bengal, East through Assam, North and South of the Brahmaputra, through Chittagong, Chin Hills and Arrakan to Pegu.