LIOPTILA ANNECTENS, Byrn.

Slender-billed Chat-Thrush.

Leioptila annectans, Blyth, Journ. As. Soc. Beng. xvi. p. 450 (1847).—Id. Cat. B. Mus. As. Soc. p. 337
(1849).—Jerd. B. India, ii. p. 248 (1863).—Godwin-Austen, J. As. Soc. Beng. xxxix. p. 109 (1870).

Cutia annectans, Gray, Hand-l. B. i. p. 314, no. 4690 (1869).

Lioptila annectans, Hume, Str. F. 1877, p. 110.—Id. Str. F. 1879, p. 104.

 

Tue present species has generally been considered a connecting link between the genera Cutia and Liothriz ;

,

and its name ‘annectans” shows that Mr. Blyth regarded it as joining these two groups together.
Although its exact relations were believed by him to be with Stbca and Yuhina, I myself think that its affinities
are more with the Chat-Thrushes or Zhamnodie, and that it is an eastern representative of the African genus
Cossypha.

The range of the present species extends from Sikhim to the Khasia bills, and in the Karen and
Tenasserim hills it is replaced by a slightly darker race which was called LZ. satwrata by the late Lord
Tweeddale. Of the latter bird Mr. Davison gives the following account :—‘I only found this bird at
Mooleyit, quite near the top, usually in pairs, sometimes singly. I found it generally about the large trees
surrounding the ‘ sakans’ or camping-grounds—strange to say, climbing about the trunk and branches much
after the manner of a Nuthatch. I have also seen it hunting about the leaves and smaller branches of the
tree-tops. Those I killed had eaten only insects. I never remember to have heard it utter any note. It
was very rare even where it did occur, and I only saw some six or seven.”

The following description is of a specimen kindly lent to me by Captain Wardlaw Ramsay.

Adult. General colour above rich orange-chestnut from the lower mantle downwards ; upper scapulars
black, the lower ones chestnut or bordered with black ; head, nape, and upper mantle black, streaked con-
spicuously with white, the feathers of the hind neck and mantle white on the inner web; lesser and median
wing-coverts black, the feathers edged with ashy-grey; greater series black tipped with orange-chestnut,
forming a wing-bar; bastard wing and primary-coverts black ; quills black, margined with pale lavender-grey,
the inner secondaries tipped with white, the innermost orange-chestnut near the base of the outer web ;
tail-feathers black, the centre ones fringed with ashy whitish, the ends pure white on the other feathers,
increasing in extent towards the outermost ; lores and sides of face and ear-coverts black ; cheeks and under
surface of body white, the flanks and under tail-coverts orange-buff; thighs ashy with whitish edgings ; under
wing-coverts and axillaries pure white; quills blackish below, white along the inner margin; “bill black,
the base of the lower mandible yellow; legs pale fleshy brown ; iris brown” (JExpon). Total length 6-5
inches, culmen 0°65, wing 3:1, tail 3-1, tarsus 0:95.

The figures in the Plate represent two specimens, of the size of life, from the above-named skins lent me by
Captain Wardlaw Ramsay.

ER. B.S.)