CISTICOLA CHLORIS. 263 
247, CIsTICOLA CURVIROSTRIS. Brown Fantail Warbler. 
Drymoica eurvirostris, Layard, B.S. Adres p= 93: 
This species is a little smaller than the foregoing, which it 
resembles in its stout bill. We have only seen it from Natal, where 
it is one of the most recognisable of the Grass-Warblers on account 
of its brown coloration and large size. Mr. Thomas Ayres writes :— 
“These birds frequent long grass in the more open country ; their 
flight is comparatively strong; during the breeding season they are 
fond of mounting high in the air, uttering at the same time a very 
loud and harsh chucking note; their food appears to consist of 
crickets and other good-sized insects.” We have also seen several 
skins sent to Captain Shelley by Mr. T. L. Ayres from Durban and 
Pinetown. 
Adult male.—General colour above brown, all the feathers 
margined with ashy buff, giving a strikingly grey appearance to 
the upper surface, the head more or less uniform brown without dark _ 
mesial streaks; the feathers of the hinder neck slightly margined 
with sandy colour ; wing-coverts brown, the edgings to the majority 
clear grey, the least and some of the greater series margined with 
sandy; quills dark brown with indistinct light tips, the primaries 
edged with rufous sandy, the inner secondaries margined all round 
with light buff; rump and upper tail-coverts nearly uniform greyish, 
the latter with dark brown bases, or centres to the feathers, giving 
a streaked mottled appearance ; tail ashy brown, tipped with white 
and faintly margined with pale sandy; the white tips indistinct on 
the two centre feathers which have a plain subterminal bar of black, 
as also have all the other feathers ; lores yellowish white; eyebrow 
greyish; sides of face dull white, the ear-coverts washed with 
greyish brown and narrowly streaked with white down the shaft ; 
sides of neck greyish; throat and centre of the body white; the 
sides dull tawny yellow, the upper breast laterally ashy brown ; 
thighs deep tawny. ‘Total length 6 inches, culmen 0°65, wing 2°85, 
tail 2°4, tarsus 1°15. 
Adult female.—Similar to the male, but much smaller. Total 
length, 4°8 inches; culmen, 0.6; wing, 2.35; tail, 2°0; tarsus, 1-05. 
248. CISTICOLA CHLORIS. Wahlberg’s Fantail Warbler. 
This species is unknown to us, and we do not know whether it 
should be included in the genus Cisticola or in Drymeca. Professor 
