Nidification and Habits. Nothing recorded beyond the fact that it is found up to 9,000 feet and frequents the tops of trees.
(328) Ixops nipalensis poliotis.
The Chin Hills Bar-wing.
Ixops poliotis Rippon, Bull. B.O.C., xv, p. 97 (1905) (Mt. Victoria).
Vernacular names. None recorded.
Description. Similar to I. n. waldeni but much darker above, almost a maroon-brown; the ear-coverts are darker grey with broader brown centres.
Colours of soft parts and Measurements as in the last bird.
Distribution. Chin Hills, Mt. Victoria.
Nidification and Habits. Nothing recorded.
(329) Ixops nipalensis daflaensis.
Austen's Bar-wing.
Actinodura daflaensis Godw.-Aust., A.M.N. H., (4) xvi, p. 340 (1875) (Datla Hills).
Ixops daflaensis. Blanf. & Oates, i, p. 204.
Vernacular names. None recorded.
Description. Similar to I. n. waldeni but a darker, duller chestnut above and the chin, throat and breast-feathers grey with reddish-brown central streaks, the whole effect being grey, not rufous; ear-coverts a rather darker grey.
Colours of soft parts and Measurements as in the Hoary Bar-wing.
Distribution. Dafla and Miri Hills.
Habits. There is nothing on record beyond the fact that Godwin-Austen shot it in high forest on Shengorh Peak at about 7,000 feet.
Genus STAPHIDIA Swinhoe, 1871.
The members of the genus Staphidia are found in the hilly regions of North-Eastern India, Burma and China and again in Borneo. Two species are found within our limits, one of which is represented by two geographical races.
In Staphidia the bill is short and thick and resembles that of Ixulus, figured below; the nostrils are overhung by a few long hairs; the rictal bristles are short and the head is crested. The tail is comparatively long and much graduated. Some species of this genus have been wrongly retained in Ixulus by Indian authors, the square tail of Ixulus at once separating it from the rounded tail of Staphidia.
In this genus the first three primaries are graduated, the third and fourth being subequal.
