CISTICOLA TINNIENS. 265 
250. CistIcoLA TINNIENS. Le Vaillant’s Fantail Warbler. 
Drymoica levaillantii, Layard, B. 8. Afr. p. 90. 
This is one of the most wide-spread of the Warblers in South 
Africa. It is common near Cape Town. Sir Andrew Smith 
procured it some distance north of the Orange River, and we have 
likewise received it from Swellendam, Colesberg, and we found it 
breeding about the Berg River in September. 
Victorin procured it at the Knysna in May, September, and 
October. Lieut. H. Trevelyan has recently met with it near King- 
william’s Town, and we have seen specimens obtained near Hland’s 
Post, by Mr. IT. C. Atmore. It is not uncommon in Natal, and Mr. 
Thomas Ayres observes in a letter to Mr. Gurney :—“ Some of the 
notes of the pair sent were very loud, and exactly resembled those of 
Juida pheenicoptera, so much so, that I was astonished to hear, as I 
thought, one of the latter birds calling from the midst of a rushy 
swamp without a single tree in the vicinity.” Mr. T. E. Buckley 
met with it on the Buffalo River, on the 7th June, 1876, and again — 
in Suaziland on the 19th of the same month. The British Museum 
has recently received from Dr. Exton several specimens from the 
neighbourhood of Potchefstroom in the Transvaal, and it occurs as 
high up as Macamac, from whence Mr. Gurney lately received a skin 
shot in October, 1873. Respecting its breeding habits in the 
Transvaal, Mr. Thomas Ayres writes as follows :—“ The nest of this 
species is attached to the upper parts of tall weeds, amongst the 
leaves ; it is composed of very fine wool and spiders’ webs mixed 
with dry grass, rather roughly woven together; the inside is lined 
lightly with the feathery down of some sort of wild flowers. It is 
oval in shape, with the entrance on the upper side, and has altogether 
a white, light, and pretty appearance. ,The eggs vary much in 
colour, some being pure white with dark pink spots, others pinkish- 
white with very fine small spots of rather darker pink; others, 
again, are pale sky-blue, blotched and spotted with pale pinkish- 
brown.” Mr. Andersson observes :—“I found this bird by no 
means uncommon in the neighbourhood of the Okavango; its 
favourite haunts seem to be along the sedgy streams and amongst 
the rank vegetation of marshy localities. It flits quickly from reed 
to reed in quest of insects, and is a comparatively tame species.” 
