SYLVIETTA RUFESCENS. 303 
with the greatest celerity, and catching the small beetles, gnats and 
flies, of which its food consists.” Mr. Barratt met with it at Macamac, 
and between this place and Pilgrim’s Rest gold-fields. 
Adult male—Head tawny rufous, becoming paler on the nape and 
hind neck ; back yellowish green, slightly shaded with rufous on 
‘the mantle; rump dull grey ; upper tail-coverts yellowish green : tail 
feathers brown, all edged with yellowish green: wing-coverts green 
like the back ; the quills dark brown externally edged with yellowish 
green, lighter on the primaries, the inner secondaries much more 
broadly washed with the same green as the back: lores and a very 
distinct eye-brow bright yellow : in front of the eye a dusky spot, and 
round the latter a circlet of bright yellow feathers: sides of face also 
bright yellow, the ear-coverts slightly washed with rufous: throat 
and chest bright yellow, fading off gradually towards the abdomen, 
which is white: sides of body dull grey washed with yellow: thighs 
and under tail-coverts bright yellow: under wing-coverts yellow, the 
lower series white washed with yellow: ‘upper mandible dusky, 
lower chrome yellow : tarsi and feet pale dusky brown: iris dusky.’ 
(Ayres). Totallength, 4inches; culmen, 0:5; wing, 2.1; tail, 1°75; 
tarsus, 0°8. , 
289. SyLVIETTA RUFESCENS. Short-tailed Bush-Warbler. 
Diccewm rufescens, Layard, B. 8. Afr. p. 84, 
This is the “ Stomp-stertje’ of the Dutch colonists, and the 
* Crombec” of Le Vaillant, who found the species about the banks 
of the Orange river in Great Namaqua Land among the mimosa trees, 
amid the branches of which it hops in search of insects. We have 
received specimens from Graaff-Reinet, Colesberg, Hope Town, and 
Swellendam ; and we ourselves found it at the Berg River. Victorin 
procured it in the Karroo in January. It is not common in Natal 
according to Mr. Ayres, but Mr. T. E. Buckley obtained a specimen 
at Palatzi in Bamangwato on the 20th October, 1873, and again in the 
Transvaal on the 1st July in the same year. Mr. T. Ayres has also 
met with it in the latter locality. A single specimen from Tete in 
the Zambesi was brought home by the Livingstone Expedition. Mr. 
Andersson writes :—‘“ I have found this species widely distributed 
in all parts which I have traversed, from the Okavango to Table 
Mountain, but nowhere very common. It frequents dwarf vegeta- 
tion, which it examines carefully as it hops and glides quickly 
onwards.’ Anchieta has procured it in Benguela, and also at 
