Mr. W. T. Blanford on Indian and Persian Birds. 77 



nized ; and the abdomen and flanks are nearly white or only 

 pale buff. But all these characters are variable in D. inquieta, 

 and Mr. Hume describes a specimen from Sind without striae 

 on the chin and throat {' Stray Feathers/ i. p. 201). 



3. The eastern race of the Orphean Warbler, Sylvia jerdoni, 

 Blyth (1847), is identical with S.orphea, var, Helena, Hempr. 

 & Ehr. (1828); and I am inclined to suspect that the type of 

 S. crassirostris , Riipp. (1826), is merely an individual variety, 

 in which case RiippelFs name would have priority. The bird 

 in the Frankfort museum, however, has a decidedly thicker 

 bill. The eastern race is rather larger than S. orphea from 

 Western Europe, and has a longer bill, the two races passing 

 into each other and breeding together where they meet in 

 the Levant, as such closely allied forms generally do. 



4. Sylvia rubescens, sp. nov. 



Inter S. currucam et S. melanocephalam fere media, ab ilia 

 capite nigrescente, dorso saturatiore, tarsisque valde pal- 

 lid ioribus, ab hac coloribus omnino dilutioribus, pectore 

 rubescenti-albo, haud cinereo, distinguenda. 

 Hab. in Persia, circum Shiraz et Isfahan. 



Male in summer plumage. Head above, with the lores and 

 feathers just below the eye, nearly black; ear-coverts dark 

 ashy ; mantle dark ashy, with a slight brownish tinge ; quills 

 brown ; tail blackish brown ; outer pair of rectrices white, ex- 

 cept the basal portion of the inner web ; the next two pairs 

 tipped white, the white diminishing inwards ; but in a newly 

 moulted specimen there is a narrow white tip on the fourth 

 pair of rectrices (coimting from the side) . Lower parts white, 

 with a well-marked pink tinge, especially on the breast. The 

 white of the throat well defined at the edge, and not passing 

 into the dusky cheeks. Bill dusky above, pale beneath ; legs 

 brown. Wing 2*38 to 2*45 inches; tail 2*15 to 2*3; tarsus 

 0-78 to 0-8; culmen 0-49 to 0-53 (bill at front about 0-45). 

 First quill scarcely longer than the greater wing-coverts, 1*8 

 inch shorter than the third, which is the longest, second quill 

 0*1 inch shorter than the third and equal to the sixth. 



A specimen from Southern Persia, apparently in winter- 

 plumage (the label has been lost), resembles S. curruca more 



