11. cisTicoLA. 279 



Adult fenuile. Similar to the male, but much smaller. Total 

 length 4-8 inches, culmeu 0-6, wing 2-35, tail 2, tarsus 1-05. 



Adult hiah ill winter plumcKjf (C. natalensis). General colour clear 

 tawny brown, with paler and more fulvous margins to the feathers 

 of the back ; all the upper surface broadly streaked with black down 

 the centre of the feathers, these black streaks slightly shaded on each 

 side with rufous ; wing-coverts dark brown, externally fulvous, 

 rather inclining to ashy buff on the median series ; primaries dark 

 brown, tipped with whitish, and externally sandy rufous ; the inner 

 secondaries blackish in the centre, edged all round with broad 

 margins of tawny buff; rump uniform ashy fulvous; iipper tail- 

 coverts tawny buff, mesially streaked with blackish ; the tail- 

 feathers dark brown, with margins of clear tawny buff, the centre 

 feathers paler at tip, with a faintly indicated subterminal bar of 

 black ; this subterminal bar very distinct and broad on all the other 

 feathers, which are conspicuously tipped with pale tawny buff, the 

 outermost feathers being externally edged with the latter colour, 

 and only having the black subterminal bar on the inner web ; lores 

 dull whitish ; feathers round the eye light fulvous, as also a very 

 faint eyebrow ; cheeks and sides of face yellowish buff, wi th a shade 

 of brown on the ear-coverts ; throat white, as also the centre of 

 the abdomen ; rest of under surface of body tawny yellow, browner 

 on the sides of the upper breast ; the under wing- and tail-coverts 

 tawny, the edge of the wing whitish ; quills ashy brown below, the 

 inner web rufous from the base upwards ; thighs deep tawny 

 rufous ; " bill yellow, the culmen black ; legs light brown ; iris dark 

 hazel " {Bucl-ley). Total length 6-5 inches, culmen O-To, wing 2-9, 

 tail 3-28, tarsus 1-2. 



The female is smaller. Total length o*6 inches, culmen 0*6, wing 

 2-45, tail 2-7, tarsus 1-05. 



It is evident that C. natalensis is nothing but the winter plumage 

 of C. curvirostris. The latter, as is usual with the genus C'isticola, 

 is more uniform in summer than in winter ; but the hen bird, even 

 in breeding-plumage, would seem to be always rather more striated 

 than the male. 



The young bird resembles the winter plumage, but is always 

 distinguished by the yellow tint on the under surface. In May it 

 begins to assume the winter dress by a direct moult. In young 

 birds the bUl is more or less yellowish, and this character is pre- 

 served in the winter plumage of the adult. In the breeding-season 

 the bill becomes more or less black. 



JJab. Natal, extending north into Matabele Land and the ila- 

 shoona country. 



a. Sinnyner 2^lit')nage (C. curvirostris). 

 a. S ad. sk. Natal ( T. Ayres). J. H. Gurney, Esq. [P.]. 



h. Juv. sk. Pinetown {T. L. Atjres). P. P. Sharpo, Esq. 



c. Ad. sk. Pinetown, April 30, 1874 P. B. Sharps, Esq. 



{T. L. Ayres), 



