143. Pellorneum minus.
Sharpe's Spotted Babbler.
Pellorneum minor, Hume, S. F. i, p. 298 (1873) ; iii, p. 120. Pellorneum intermedium, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. vii, p. 519, pl. xiii, fig. 1 (1883) ; Oates, B. B. i, p. 67; Salvadori, Ann. Mus. Civ. Gen. (2) iv, p. 597.
Coloration. Resembles P. mandellii. Differs in having a more slender bill; the black streaks on the forehead more sparse; the eyebrow more distinct, with only one or two black specks on it just in front of the eye; the outer webs of the feathers of the hind neck rufous-brown, not blackish; the streaks on the breast narrower and paler.
Legs fleshy yellow; bill dusky, yellowish at the base below (Hume).
Length about 6.5; tail 2.6; wing 2.6; tarsus 1; bill from gape .75.
Hume first named this species from a specimen sent to him by Feilden from Thayetmyo. His type is in the British Museum, and he correctly described it as being like P. mandellii in having the sides of the head behind the ear-coverts and nape olive-brown, margined more or less broadly on one web with rufescent or buffy-white. He, however, afterwards allowed himself to be persuaded that his bird was nothing but P. subochraceum, a totally different type of Pellorneum with no white-edged feathers behind the nape. Sharpe, in the absence of Hume's type, very rightly gave a name to the Cachar bird, which is identical with the Thayetmyo one. Hume's name, however, has priority by ten years, and I am glad to be able to reinstate it.
Distribution. Cachar; Tipperah; Bhamo; Thayetmyo. Probably widely distributed.
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