Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Birds Vol 2).djvu/100

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TUKDIDÆ.


the neighbourhood of Bhaino ; Arrakan ; Pegu, probably not extending to the east of the Sittoung river. This species is found at low elevations chiefly.

Habits, fyc. I found the nest of thisForktaii placed on a bank ab the side of a nullah in the Pegu hills on the 20th April, and con- taining three fresh eggs.

634. Henicurus leschenaulti. Lesclienaulf s Forldail.

Turdus leschenaulti, Vieill. Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. xx,p. 269 (1818). Enicums leschenaulti ( V.), Horsf. fy M. Cat. i, p. 345 ; Godw.-Aust. J. A. S. B. xliii, pt. ii, p. 168.

Henicurus leschenaulti ( V. Elwes, Ibis, 1872, p. 258 ; Hume, S. F. v, p. 249 ; Tiveedd. Ibis, 1877, p. 310 ; Hume $ Dav. S. F. vi, p. 360; Hume, Cat. no. 584 ter; Sharpe, Cat. B. M. vii, p. 313; Oates, B. B. i, p. 27 ; Hume, S. F. xi, p. 228.

Henicurus sinensis, Gould, apud Godw.-Aust. J. A. S. B. xlv, pt. ii, p. 80; Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civ. Gen. (2) vii, p. 412.

Coloration. Forehead and two thirds of the crown white ; the remainder of the head, neck, breast, back, scapulars, and wings black, the scapulars and the greater coverts broadly tipped white, the secondaries and terriaries white at their bases, and the later ones tipped white ; rump, upper tail-coverts, abdomen, vent, under tail-coverts, under wing-coverts, and axillaries white ; the two outer pairs of rectrices entirely white ; the next black, with white base and tip ; the others black, tipped white.

The nestling has the head, neck, and back chocolate-brown, the sides of the head with pale shafts ; chin and throat grey ; breast brown, with yellowish streaks ; the other parts as in the adult ; the white of the crown is assumed at a late period.

Length about 11 ; tail up to 5'9 ; wing up to 4-5 ; tarsus 1-3 ; bill from gape 1-1.

This species is slightly smaller than H. sinensis, Gould, from China, and is inseparable from it in coloration. The two species may, however, be always separated by the structure of the tail. In H. leschenaulti the outermost tail-feathers are about as long as those next to them, whereas in H. sinensis these feathers are shorter than the penultimate pair by about two inches.

Distribution. Sikhim ; the Bhutan Doars ; Upper Assam ; the Daphla hills ; the E. Naga hills ; the Khasi hills; Manipur ; the northern and central portions of Tenasserim below 2500 feet. This speciess in occur Java.

Genus HYDROCICHLA, Sharpe, 1883.

This genus differs from Henicurus in having the tail about equal in length to the wing, and the middle pair of tail-feathers about half the length of the tail. There are two species of this genus found in India, in one of which the sexes are alike arid in the other dissimilar.