Malacocercus terricolor

Malacocercus terricolor, Hodgson.

432. :- Jerdon's Birds of India, Vol. II, p. 59 ; Butler, Guzerat; Stray Feathers, Vol. III, p. 472 ; Murray's Vertebrate Zoology of Sind, p. 133 ; Swinhoe and Barnes, Central India; Ibis, 1885, p. 67.

THE BENGAL BABBLER.

Sat bhai, Hin.

Length, 9 to 10 ; extent, 13 ; wing, 4.12 ; tail, 4.5 ; tarsus, 1.5 ; bill at front, 0.75.

Bill horny-brown ; irides pale yellow ; legs dingy-yellow.

Above brownish-ashy, paler and somewhat cinereous on the head and neck, browner on the back, where the feathers are faintly pale shafted ; quills brown, with outer webs paler, and narrowly bordered with ashy; tail reddish-brown, faintly barred, and the outer feathers tipped with pale whity-brown; beneath pale ashy-brown on the throat and breast, the feathers very faintly edged and shafted lighter; abdomen, vent, and under tail-coverts, pale fulvescent.

With the exception of the Deccan, the Bengal Babbler is common throughout our limits ; it is a permanent resident and breeds from March to July.

The nests are often found in gardens, in fruit trees, vineries, thick hedges, and in fact almost anywhere ; they are of a deep cup-shape, generally loosely constructed, but occasionally they, are more neatly made; they are composed of grass stems and roots.

The eggs, three or four in number, are variable both in shape and color, but are typically broad oval in shape and deep blue in color.

They average one inch in length by about 0 78 in breadth. They are in general highly glossy.