11. CISTICOLA. 261 



black longitudiual streaks ; centre tail-feathers brown, with whity- 

 brown margins, remainder dark brown, edged with pale sandy buif, 

 the tips white or brownish white with a distinct black snbterminal 

 bar ; crown of head streaked like back ; hind neck a little more 

 rufescent than back ; lores whitish ; a narrow eyebrow and feathers 

 round eye sandy buff; ear-coverts pale sandy buff, with whitish 

 shaft-lines ; cheeks whitish like the throat ; sides of neck decidedly 

 more rufous like hind neck ; foro neck and breast a pale sandy buff ; 

 sides of upper breast streaked with darker brown ; abdomen lighter 

 and more buffy white ; sides of body ferruginous, deepening on Hanks 

 and tawny on thighs ; under tail-coverts sandy buff; under wing-- 

 coverts and axillaries the same, but a little more rufescent ; quilb 

 below dusky brown, ashy rufous on their inner edge ; " bill fleshj', 

 the culmen varying from dusky to blackish brown, tip of l&wcr 

 mandible dusky ; inside of mouth blach ; legs and feet fleshy, joints 

 of toes dusky ; iris varying from greyish yellow to olive-grey or pale 

 olive" (TF. Vincent Leiige). Total length 4-1 inches, culmen 0'45, 

 wing 2, tail 1-75, tarsus 0-75. 



The female is exactly like the male in colour ; but the inside of 

 the mouth is always fleshy, according to Capt. Legge. Total length 

 4*3 inches, wing 1-8, tail 1-7, tarsus tl-7o. 



Young. Similar to the adult, but rather more fluffy and tinged 

 with yellow below. In its first autumn plumage it resembles the 

 full winter plumage of the adult ; but the white tips to the tail- 

 feathers are not so strongly pronounced ; " bill dark horn-colour, 

 the under mandible yellowish fleshy ; legs and feet flesh}' reddish ; 

 iris greyish olive " ( W. V. Legge). 



The series of specimens examined by me from Europe does not 

 contain an adult female in the breeding-plumage ; and I am not 

 able to state the different phases of plumage through which the 

 hen passes. As in the case of the C. e.vilis group, tLe male bird 

 seems to have a more uniform brown head during the breeding- 

 season, and as soon as the latter is past he assumes a striped dress. 

 The female will probably be found to have a striped head at all 

 seasons ; and it is evident that in winter the birds are not only 

 striped, but have a longer tail than in summer, as is usual in the 

 Cisticolce. Thus a male in breeding-plumage has the tail 1-25 inch, 

 while a male killed in December has the tail 185 inch. 



Specimens from the plains of India sometimes present a remark- 

 able dift'ereuce from European specimens in the tail-feathers, which 

 hare the light subterminal shade of the latter bright tawny instead 

 of dull brown. So different does such a specimen as Mr. Brooks's 

 Muddapoor skin (vidi; infra ) look, that few would hesitate to separate 

 it as a distinct species ; but I find that, although this tawny spot 

 is never seen in European skins, yet it often occurs in Indian ones, 

 and is present also in some of the West-African birds in a varying 

 degree of intensity. Thus it is not possible to make it a specific 

 character; and it is probably remains of some older plumage (when 

 the species was not so widely spread as it is now) which survives 

 still in full force in the Indian plains, but has become obliterated iu 



