484 BULLETIN 186, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



At small, marshy areas in the fields, where tall, dense vegetation 

 retards evaporation of moisture during the months of drought and 

 rails and bluethroats congregate, the rasping chur-r-r of the various 

 reed warblers is heard from the sedges and coarse grasses, but only 

 rarely will the soberly dressed birds be seen clambering about the 

 stems or flitting across an open spot where the rank growth has 

 been trampled down by cattle. 



A female had the irides light brown ; the maxilla brownish black ; 

 the mandible fleshy, with the apical half tinged horny; the interior 

 of the mouth bright orange; the feet and toes plumbeous; the claws 

 horny brown. 



In the hand, orientalis may be known from brunnescens by its hav- 

 ing the second primary longer than the fifth; five Thai specimens 

 before me have it between the fourth and fifth in length. 



ACROCEPHALUS AGRICOLA CONCINENS (Swinhoe) 



Chinese Paddy-field Warbler 



Calamoherpe concinens Swinhoe, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1870, pp. 432-433 



(Peking, China). 

 Acrocephalus concinens concinens, Deignan, Journ. Siam Soc. Nat. Hist. Suppl., 



1931, p. 148 (Chiang Mai). — Chasen and Boden Kloss, Journ. Siam Soc. 



Nat. Hist. Suppl., 1932, p. 246 (Doi Suthep).— Deignan, Journ. Siam Soc. Nat. 



Hist. Suppl., 1936, p. 114 (Chiang Mai, Doi Suthep). 



The paddy-field warbler is a locally common winter visitor to the 

 Chiang Mai plain, where I have found it between November 29 (1935) 

 and February 14 (1931) ; it occurs rarely also on Doi Suthep, where 

 I shot an example at 2,300 feet, December 30, 1931, and where Aagaard 

 collected one at 4,600 feet in February or March 1931. 



This species is normally an inhabitant of the same marshes as its 

 congeners but, not infrequently, especially toward the end of its stay, 

 may be found in quite dry locations, such as wastelands where the 

 grass has been almost entirely burned off. 



A male had the irides brown ; the maxilla horny black ; the mandible 

 with the basal half flesh, the apical half plumbeous; the interior of 

 the mouth deep yellow; the tarsi horny flesh, the toes browner; the 

 soles yellow ; the claws horn brown. A female differed only in having 

 the whole of the mandible fleshy. 



A. a. concinens may be described roughly as a much smaller edition 

 of the great reed warbler. As seen with us in winter, it has the entire 

 upperparts olivaceous-brown, suffused (especially on the mantle, rump, 

 and upper tail coverts) with rufescent; a poorly defined buff y- white 

 supercilium ; the underparts rufous-buff, brighter posteriorly, the chin, 

 throat, and center of the abdomen almost white. 



