Gould stated that as far back as 1836 he published a description of the first species of the remarkable genus Paradoxornis (Parrotbills), and since then there were several new species. The latest discovery was by Major Henry Haversham Godwin-Austen, (1834-1923). Gould named this bird after Godwin-Austen, 'who has done so much to enlighten our ignorance of the little-known birds of the hill-country on the north-eastern frontiers of our Indian Empire.'
Godwin-Austen obtained five specimens of these light-coloured birds, two in the Naga Hills, and the others in the Khasi Hills, near Shillong, Assam, at an elevation of 5,000 to 6,000 feet.
The birds are depicted lifesize.
DISTRIBUTION: Eastern India, northeastern and eastern Burma, central and southern China, northwestern Thailand, northern Laos and northern Vietnam