Malacocercus malabaricus, Jerdon.
434 :- Jerdon's Birds of India, Vol. II, p. 62 ; Butler, Deccan; Stray Feathers, Vol. IX, p. 400.
THE JUNGLE BABBLER.
Length, 9 ; wing, 4.1 ; tail, 4.5 ; tarsus, 1.2 ; bill at front, 0.75.
Bill and gape dark yellow ; orbits yellow ; irides pale-yellow ; legs dirty-yellow, with a fleshy tinge.
Very like M. terricolor, but somewhat darker in color, with broader and more distinct pale mesial streaks on the feathers of the back, and especially of the breast; the tertiaries are but very obscurely striated, but the tail is distinctly so.
The Jungle Babbler is rather irregular in its breeding habits, nests having been taken from April to October; it is generally placed in the centre of a thorny bush. The eggs, three or four in number, are similar to those of M. terricolor.
They average 0.97 inches in length by about 0.77 in breadth.
The occurrence of the Jungle Babbler within our limit is rather doubtful. Jerdon implies that it occurs along the Malabar coast, and Major Lloyd includes it in his list of Konkan species.
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