sides of the head brighter; upper tail-coverts and tail chestnut; lores dull white or pale fulvous; lower plumage white suffused with brownish on the breast and less so on the sides of the body.
Colours of soft parts. Iris pale wood-brown; upper inaudible dirty white, lower mandible dark brown; legs and feet fleshy-white.
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Fig. 47.—Head of E. bicolor.
Measurements. Total length about 160 to 170 mm.; wing 72 to 82 mm.; tail about 60 to 63 mm.; tarsus about 28 mm.; culmen 18 to 20 mm.
Distribution. Tenasserim South through the Malay Peninsula to Borneo and Sumatra.
Nidification unknown.
Habits. Said by Davison to be entirely a ground bird, only flying up into the bushes and trees when disturbed.
Genus ÆTHOSTOMA Sharpe, 1902.
The name Trichostoma being already occupied, Sharpe's Æthostoma is the earliest available for this genus. It differs from the last genus in having remarkably long rictal bristles and a very short tail.
(266) Æthostoma rostrata.
Blyth's Babbler.
- Trichostoma rostrata Blyth, J. A. S. B., xi, p. 795 (1842) (Malaya); Blanf. & Oates, i, p. 153.
Vernacular names. None recorded.
Description. "Whole upper plumage and wings rufescent olive-brown, tinged with rufescent on the upper tail-coverts and outer webs of tall-feathers; lores whitish mottled with black; ear-coverts and round the eye rufescent, the former with whitish shafts; cheeks white with black shafts and tips; entire lower plumage white, washed with pale grey across the breast and suffused with ashy-brovvn on the sides of the breast and abdomen.
Colours of soft parts. Iris pale red-brown; upper mandible dark horn-brown, lower pale plumbeous blue; legs and feet rather dark pinkish-fleshy; claws pale horny-brown (Davison).
Measurements. Total length about 160 to 170 mm.; wing 70 to 75 mm.; tail about 52 to 54 mm.; tarsus about 26 mm.; culmen about 18 to 20 mm.
