496 BULLETIN 186, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 

 CISTICOLA JUNCIDIS MALAYA Lynes 



Malayan Common Fantail Warbler 



Chticola juncidis malaya Lynes, Review of the genus Cisticola, Ibis, suppl. no., 



1930, pp. 92-94, pi. 2, figs, a-c (Klang, Malay Peninsula). 

 Cisticola juncidis cursitans, Deignan, Journ. Siam Soc. Nat. Hist. Suppl., 1931, 



p. 149 (Chiang Mai). 

 Cisticola juncidis malaya, Deignan, Journ. Siam. Soc. Nat. Hist. Suppl., 1936, 



p. 115 (Chiang Mai). 

 Cisticola exilis equicaudata, Deignan, Journ. Siam. Soc. Nat. Hist. Suppl., 1936, 



p. 115 (Chiang Mai). 



The common fantail warbler is definitely known within our area 

 only from the provinces of Chiang Mai (Chiang Mai, Ban Sop Mae 

 Chaem) and Chiang Rai (Ban Mae Chai). At Chiang Mai, where 

 it may be found in the ricefields at any time of the year, it is rather 

 common during the rains but rare and local at other seasons. 



This little bird keeps to open country, haunting the growing rice 

 and the moist, grassy borders of marshes, large or small. It is a 

 skulker, outside of the breeding season not likely to be observed until 

 accidentally flushed, when it makes a short, low flight before dropping 

 again into cover. During the rains, however, the male may be very 

 conspicuous by his song, a series of sharp notes uttered as the bird 

 circles with undulating flight high above his mate — tsit . . . tsit . . . 

 tsit, each tsit synchronized with a dip in the flight. 



Thanks to the nuptial performance, I have collected males with the 

 gonads enlarged or greatly enlarged between May 9 (Ban Mae Chai) 

 and August 26 (Chiang Mai). A specimen taken by me at Chiang 

 Mai, January 14, 1936 (erroneously recorded as Cisticola exilis equi- 

 caudata) , is in an advanced stage of postjuvenal molt. 



A breeding male had the irides tan ; the maxilla horny brown, black- 

 ish at the base; the mandible fleshy plumbeous* the rictus and in- 

 terior of the mouth black ; the feet and toes flesh ; the claws pale horny 

 flesh. A winter example of the same sex had the irides light brown ; 

 the maxilla dark horny brown ; the mandible fleshy, horny at the tip ; 

 the feet and toes yellowish fleshy ; the claws horn. 



The adult male, in summer, has the feathers of the forehead, crown, 

 and nape dark brown with narrow light brown margins ; those of the 

 upper back black with light brown margins ; the lower back and rump 

 ferruginous ; each feather of the fan-shaped tail brown, with a con- 

 spicuous white tip and a black subterminal bar ; a buffy- white super- 

 cilium ; the underparts white, washed with buffy rufous, most heavily 

 along the flanks and on the thighs. The adult male in winter is sim- 

 ilar but differs in having the forehead and crown like the upper back 

 and the underparts with a rather stronger buffy-rufous wash. The 

 plumages of the female vary only in minor points from those of the 

 male. 



