ACROCEPHALUS. 569 



550. LOCUSTELLA LANCEOLATA ( Temminck ) . 

 STREAKED GRASSHOPPER WARBLER, 



Sylvia lanccolata TEMMINCK, Man. d'Orn. (1840), 4, 014. 



Locustella lanccolata SEEBOHM, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1881), 5, 118; 

 GATES, Fauna Brit. India Birds (1889), 1, 354; SHARPE, Hand-List 

 (1903), 4, 186; GATES and REID, Cat. Birds' Eggs (1905), 4, 180, pi. 

 9, fig. 9; MCGREGOR and WORCESTER, Hand-List (1906), 87. 



Calayan (McGregor}; Luzon (Heriot, McGregor). Russia, Siberia, and cen- 

 tral Asia; in winter to China, Andaman Islands, Indian Peninsula, and Burmese 

 provinces. 



Adult (sexes similar). Above olivaceous russet-brown, each feather 

 with a wide seal-brown shaft-streak; primaries and secondaries seal- 

 brown edged with russet-brown, second primary edged with whitish; 

 secondary-coverts similar to back; tail nearly uniform brown; sides of 

 head and ear-coverts brown; a yellowish buff line above, and another 

 below, eye; cheek and jaw buff, traversed by a narrow blackish brown 

 line; under parts whitish, washed with buff on fore breast, sides, flanks, 

 and crissum; feathers of these parts more or less marked with blackish 

 brown shaft-lines. Bill dusky above, flesh-color below; legs and nails 

 pale yellowish flesh-color. Length, 120 to 125. A male from Calayan 

 measures: Wing, 57; tail, 45; culmen from base, 12; bill from nostril, 

 7; tarsus, 17. A female, wing, 53; tail, 43; culmen from base, 11; bill 

 from nostril, 7 ; tarsus, 19. 



""The streaks on the lower surface become reduced in aged birds. The 

 bird least marked in my series has a few streaks only on the middle of 

 the breast and on the flanks, with one or two faint marks on the under 

 tail-coverts. In this state it is very like the Indian L. straminea. The 

 majority of the birds are densely streaked from the chin to the tail- 

 coverts, except on the abdomen, and all these are characterized by a 

 richer tone of coloring beneath. The tail-coverts vary in the most 

 extraordinary manner. In many of the birds they are entirely unmarked ; 

 in others densely streaked, and this apparently quite independently of 

 the amount of streaking on the other parts of the lower plumage." 

 (Oates.) 



Genus ACROCEPHALUS Naumann, 1811. 



Bill comparatively long and stout; from three to five large rictal 

 bristles on each side of bill; wing long, flat, and pointed; first primary 

 minute, narrow, and pointed; third primary longest, second a little 

 shorter; tail decidedly rounded; tarsus and feet well developed. 



