405. Phylloscopus affinis.
Tickell's Willow-Warbler.
Motacilla affinis, Tick. J. A. S. B. ii, p. 576 (1833). Phylloscopus affinis (Tick.), Blyth, Cat. p. 185 ; Jerd. B. I. ii, p. 194 ; Blanf. J. A. S. B. xli, pt. ii, p. 54; Brooks, J. A. S. B. xli, pt. ii, p. 81; Anders. Yunnan Exped., Aves, p. 625; Hume, Cat. no. 561; Scully, S. F. viii, p. 306; Damson, S. F. x, p. 394; Seebohm, Birds B. M. v. p. 65; Barnes, Birds Bom. p. 229; Hume, S. F. xi. p. 219.
Tickell's Tree-Warbler, Jerd.
Coloration. Upper plumage dull olive-brown ; wings and tail dark brown, narrowly edged with bright olive-brown ; lores and behind the eye dark brown ; a deep yellow supercilium from the nostrils to the nape; the whole lower plumage deep yellow, suffused with olivaceous on the sides of the neck, breast, and body; under wing-coverts and axillaries pale yellow.
Legs and feet greenish brown; claws darker; lower mandible pale yellow, upper dark brown; iris brown (Cockburn).
Length about 4.5; tail 1.9; wing 2.2 to 2.5; tarsus .8; bill from gape .5; the second primary is equal to the ninth or tenth.
Distribution. Breeds at high elevations along the Himalayas from Kashmir to Sikhim, and no doubt also in Bhutan and further east.
This Warbler winters in the plains of India, extending down to the Palni hills. It seems, however, to be unknown in the Punjab, Rajputana, the North-West Provinces, and the greater part of Central India. Its western limit in the peninsula, judging from the specimens I have been able to examine, is a line drawn from Khandala to Baipur, and from Raipur to Benares. The birds which summer in the N.W. Himalayas apparently migrate in a southeasterly direction along the hills, and evidently do not enter the plains till they reach Bengal. To the east this bird has been found up the Assam valley as far as Dibrugarh, in the Khasi hills, and in Manipur, and Anderson records it from near Bhamo.
* P. trochilus, L. (Jerd. B. I. ii, p. 192), is omitted from this work as its occurrence in India is more than doubtful.
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