Birds of Gaznhtnd. 77 



The stomachs liavc contained a borer {Bostryc/ndce) and 

 other small beetles, larvae, and small flies, and I once saw 

 one capture a moth on the wing. Ten of these birds 

 averaged in the flesh 5'35 inches, ranging from 4'8 to 5*95. 



108. CisTicoLA ciNEKAscENS. Grcj Grass-AVarblcr. 



Chindao : "Chitiwa/' Singuni : " Itsiyana.'^ Both these 

 names are applied to all Grass- Warblers. 



E.h., P. By far the commonest Cisticola of the Jihu ; 

 in fact, I have up to the present noted no other there, 

 though during my stays on the Kurumadzi in August and 

 November I shot and trapped a long series of these birds. 

 It at once took advantage of the paths which I had cleared 

 through the jungle and was constantly to be found feeding 

 along them. When not engaged in insect-hunting it will 

 sidle with short hops up a tall grass-stem till it topples ovci- 

 with its weight, then on to the next and so on, all the time 

 jerking its wings and tail, which latter, except when the bird 

 is at rest (a rare event), is held upright like a Wren^s and is 

 jerked yet further forward with every " cweeet ^' (a loud 

 musical call, Zulu " c '^) or harsher "trrr"; occasionally 

 the bird will stop to preen its breast-feathers and wings. 

 I once near Chirinda heard a male continually uttering a 

 repeated cicada-like note which was new to me ; his mate 

 was replying with the more usual call. Quite a number of 

 these weak-flighted Warblers must be destroyed annually by 

 the great jungle-fires, as when the flames dash up some slope 

 with a roar to consume some particularly dry patch of grass, 

 or, carried by a gust of wind, lick up 50 or 100 yards at one 

 sweep; but under ordinary circumstances the majority cer- 

 tainly escape, some managing to keep ahead of the flames 

 (I have found numbers flying into Chirinda for refuge in 

 front of such a fire, the only occasion in the year on which 

 they enter the forest), and others flying back over them into 

 the burnt area behind. It is wonderful how full of birds of 

 this and other kinds a " burn '" will often become as soon as 

 the flames have passed through, all hunting and on the alert 

 for such grasshoppers and other insects as the flames have 



