CISTICOLA SUBRUFICAPILLA. 267 
Cape Colony, not ranging higher north than Little Namaqua 
Land. It is not uncommon near Cape Town, and Mr. Andersson 
met with it at the Knysna. From George Mr. H. Atmore has for- 
warded it, and Mr. W. Atmore from Swellendam. We have our- 
selves seen it along the river Zonder End, and obtained it at the 
Berg River. Mr. Rickard possesses one shot by himself near Port 
Elizabeth, and another from near Hast London. The late Mr. 
Andersson also met with it in Little Namaqua Land. Mr. H. 
Jackson has sent its eggs from Nel’s Poort: the latter are 
white, faintly tinged with green, and dotted with small red-brown 
and purple spots, chiefly in the form of a ring at the obtuse end. 
Axis, 7” ; diam. 53”. 
Sir Andrew Smith writes :— This bird occurs in various districts 
of the Cape Colony, and is either found upon brushwood or among 
rushes or reeds. It feeds upon insects, and, like others of the 
genus, flits generally from branch to branch or from reed to reed in 
quest of its food.” 
The following description is taken from the type-specimen in the 
British Museum. 
Adult.—Above ashy brown, all the feathers of the back streaked 
down the centre with black, the head rufous with less distinct mesial 
streaks of black, becoming still more obscure on the hind neck, 
where the rufous shades off into the ashy grey of the back; wing- 
coverts dark brown, margined with the same ashy grey as the back, 
the greater series faintly washed with rufous; quills dull brown, 
externally edged with rufous, the inner secondaries margined all 
round with ashy grey; tail rufous brown, margined with fulvous, 
tipped with dull white or rufous, before which isa distinct bar of 
black on all except the two centre feathers; lores and a narrow eye-brow 
dull white; round the eye a tiny ring of buff feathers; sides of face 
dull white, browner on the ear-coverts ; entire under surface of body 
dirty white, the sides of the body and under tail-coverts ashy brown, 
the breast with a few small spots of brown; thighs tawny buff; 
under wing-coverts buffy white, the lower surface of the wing 
broadly edged with rufous along the inner web. Total length, 
5 inches; culmen, 0°5; wing, 2°05; tail, 2:2; tarsus, 0-7. 
We have not had under our eyes a female of this species, but it 
will probably be smaller than the above measurements. 
Fig. Smith, Ill. Zool. 8. Afr. Aves, pl. 76, fig. 1. 
