78 PASSERES. 



the Prycr collection from Yokohama, and three from the central 

 group of the Loo-Choo Islands. ^Mr. Ringer obtained it at Naga- 

 saki. It is very remarkable that of these fifteen skins, one only 

 (from the Loo-Choo Islands) is a male in summer plumage, with 

 unstripcd crown. 



All the examples are large, varying in length of wing (from carpal 

 joint) from 2 to 2'23 inches ; and the example in summer plumage 

 has a broad buff band across the tail (Seebohm. Ibis, ]SS7, p. 175). 



There is a male in summer plumage from the neighbourhood of 

 Yokohama in the Smithsonian Institution at Washington ; and it has 

 been obtained in the southern group of the Loo-Choo Islands (Stej- 

 neger, Proe. United States Nat. :Mus. 1887, p. 408). 



This extreme form of the Eastern or tropical race of the Fantail 

 Warbler has been called Salicaria {Cisticold) brunneiceps (Temminck 

 and Schlegel, Fauna Japonica, Aves, p. 134), and may possibly have 

 a right to the name of Cisticola cisticola brunneiceps on account of 

 its large size. The buff baud across the tail appears to he character- 

 istic of the summer plumage of the tropical form, which ranges 

 throtigh Formosa, South China, Burma, India, and Ceylon, to 

 tropical Africa. Examples in the Swinhoe collection from Formosa 

 vary in length of wing from 2*15 to 1'85 inches. The Eastern race 

 appears to be entitled to the name of Cisticola cisticola cursitans, 

 the latter name having been bestowed upon examples from the neigh- 

 bourhood of Calcutta CFranklin, Proe. Zool. Soc. 1831, p. 118). 



Winter examples of the two forms are not easy to distinguish, but 

 the Eastern form has on an average a shorter first primary and a 

 longer second primary than its Western representative. In an 

 example from Smyrna and one from Yokohama the wing is of the 

 same length, 2 inches. In the Japanese example the first primary 

 measures '45, the second is *9 longer, only '15 shorter than the 

 longest, which is '3 inch longer than the tenth. In the Asia-Minor 

 exam])le the first primary measures T)7, the second is "02 longer, *2 

 shorter than the longest, which is only '25 inch longer than the 

 tenth. It must be admitted, however, that there is considerable 

 individual variation in these structural characters, but on an average 

 they appear to be suflBcicntly reliable to serve as a foundation for a 

 subspecies. 



