Colours of soft parts. Irides red; bill dark brownish-horn, paler beneath; legs and feet fleshy-brown (Venning).
Measurements. A larger bird than either of the two other races; wing 65 to 74 mm., average 15 specimens 68 mm.
Distribution. Southern Shan States, Burma and Yunnan.
Nidification. Nothing recorded but I have in my collection eggs of a Turdinulus from the S. Shan States which must be of this race. They are exactly like those of T. b. striatus already described and measure 21·6 × 16·9 mm.
Habits. Nothing recorded but Rippon obtained it in the Salween Valley between 2,800 and 3,000 feet, a lower elevation than this species usually haunts.
(258) Turdinulus roberti roberti.
Austen's Wren-Babbler.
- Pnoepyga roberti Godw.-Aust. & Wald., Ibis, 1875, p. 252 (Chaka, Manipur).
Vernacular names. Dao-mojo gashim, Dao-pufli-kashiba (Cachari).
Description. Above rich brown, more rufescent on upper tail-coverts; the feathers of head, back and scapulars edged with blackish and with pale greyish centres; lores grey; ear-coverts brown with grey centres; supercihum and patch under ear-coverts rufous, the feathers of the latter with specks at the tips; chin and throat white with black specks forming three distinct hues from chin to breast; breast rather rufous-brown with broad white centres; flanks more rufous with still paler shaft-stripes; centre of abdomen almost white with faint rufous edgings; under tail-coverts the siime but darker; wing brown, the outer webs of the quills suffused with dark rufous, greater and median coverts and secondaries with distinct white tips.
Colours of soft parts. Irides red; upper mandible dark plumbeous, tip and lower mandible paler and tipped almost white; legs fleshy-brown, claws paler.
Measurements. Length about 100 mm.; wing 50 to 55 mm.; tail about 18 mm.; tarsus about 18 mm.; culmen 12 to 13 mm.
Distribution. Cachar, Manipur, Naga Hills and Khasia Hills.
Nidification. This little Wren-Babbler breeds freely both in the N. Cachar and Khasia Hills from 4,000 feet upwards from the end of April to the end of June, making a nest an absolute miniature in every way of that of the Short-tailed Babbler. It also places it in precisely the same sort of position and in the same forests.
The eggs number three or four, more often the former, and are like those of T. b. brevicaudatus but smaller, not so glossy a white and with more numerous but smaller specks and spots. Forty eggs average 19·3 × 14·8 mm.
Habits. "Wren-Babbler" describes this bird exactly and in all
