292 BIRDS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
pared it with a specimen in Mr. Dresser’s collection, with which it 
entirely agrees. This is no doubt the species mentioned by Mr. 
Gurney (Ibis, 1865, p. 266) as ‘0. arundinacea (Gm.)?’?” The 
notes given by Mr. T. Ayres on the last-named specimen are 
transcribed below, and we agree with Captain Shelley that the 
species there spoken of is A. palustris. Mr. Ayres observes :— 
“These birds frequent the sedgy pools and streams inland; they 
appear to be tolerably numerous; their habits are active, their notes 
loud and not unmusical. The specimen sent I shot in December: I 
did not notice any last winter (July) when I was shooting in the 
same locality, but still I think they must have been somewhere in 
the neighbourhood.” 
Whether A. palustris is a species distinct from A. streperus is a 
question not yet determined by ornithologists. As regards the 
occurrence of a second species of Reed Wren in South Africa it 
does not much matter, as the proportions of the quills are the same 
in both European species, and the birds should be looked for during 
the summer months in South Africa. 
The following description is taken from Captain Shelley’s specimen 
above mentioned. 
General colour above uniform olivaceous brown: wing-coverts 
uniform with the back: quills dark brown, externally edged with 
olivaceous brown, the edges to the secondaries rather more fulves- 
cent, all the primaries with a narrow whitish tip, confined in most 
cases to a slight terminal edging, which is almost obsolete in the 
secondaries: tail-feathers dark brown, slightly fulvescent at tip 
and washed on both webs with olivaceous brown: lores pale buff, 
extending backwards and forming a faint eyebrow: round the eye a 
ring of paie fulvous plumes: in front of the eye a dusky spot: ear- 
coverts brown, with indistinct light shaft-streaks: cheeks and under 
surface of body light tawny buff, paler on the centre of the abdomen: 
throat white: sides of the body somewhat shaded with brown: under 
wing-coverts white, some of the outermost shaded with pale tawny 
buff, as is also the edge of the wing: “beak flesh-colour, shading 
into brown on the culmen: legs flesh-colour with a slight livid 
shade : iris hazel” (G. H. Shelley). Total length, 5:5 inches ; culmen, 
0°55; wing, 2°75; tail, 2°3; tarsus, 0°85. 
Fig. Gould, B. Gt. Br. part xxi. 
