234 MOTACILLIN &. 
Sylvia nana, Hemp. & Ehr. 
583bis—Murray’s Vertebrate Zoology of Sind, p. 163. 
THE DESERT WARBLER. 
Length, 48 to 4°9 ; expanse, 7 to 7'2; wing, 2 to 22; tail, 1'8 
to 2; tarsus, 0°8; bill at front, 0°33. 
Bill pale yellow, dusky on culmen and at tip; irides orange- 
yellow ; legs and feet pale yellow. 
The lores are greyish-white ; from the nostril to the upper 
margin of the eye runs a very narrow yellowish-streak, whiter 
and less grey than the lores; this line ceases to be visible in 
nine out of ten skins, but is sufficiently apparent in the freshly 
killed bird; a circle of yellowish-white feathers surrounds the 
eye; forehead, crown, occiput, nape, back, and scapulars, pale 
fawn-brown ; rump and upper tail-coverts pale rufous; central 
tail-feathers pale rufous, with dark shafts; external lateral fea- 
thers wholly white, next pair white on the outer webs, and 
with a moderately broad white tip to both webs; the rest of the 
inner webs dark hair-brown; the rest of the feathers dark hair- 
brown, margined on the outer webs with pale rufous; the whole 
of the lower parts white, with, in the freshly killed birds, a just 
perceptible rufous tinge; wing-lining and axillaries pure white ; 
wing pale-brown, narrowly margined and tipped with rufescent- 
white ; the tertiaries pale dingy-rufescent with brown shafts. 
Within our limits this Warbler only occurs in the more desert- 
like portion of Sind and in the Runn of Kutch. It is appa- 
rently a permanent resident as Mr. Doig found them breeding in 
October. 
Sus-ramiLy, Motacillinee. 
Bill generally of moderate length, slender, straight, barely 
deflected at the tip, and indistinctly notched; rictal vibrissze 
minute or wanting; wings typically long or pointed, and the 
tertiaries lengthened; tail long; tarsus moderately long and 
slender; toes moderate; claws slightly curved; the hind-claw 
often long and straight. 
Genus, Motacilla, Lin. 
Bill moderate, straight, slender, compressed at the tip, which 
is very slightly notched; nostrils apert; rictus almost smooth ; 
wings long, pointed, with nine primary quills, the first two sub- 
equal and longest; tertiaries lengthened, equal to the primaries ; 
tail long, slender, nearly even; tarsus moderately long, slender, 
obscurely scutellate ; feet. moderate ; hind-toe short ; claws slightly 
curved; hind-claw small, more curved. 
Motacilla maderaspatensis, Gm. 
589.—Jerdon’s Birds of India, Vol. II, p. 217 ; M. maderaspa- 
tana, Briss.; Butler, Guzerat ; Stray Feathers, Vol. III, p. 489 ; 
