580 MA XT' A I, OF PHILIPPINE P.IRDS. 



f><;4. CISTICOLA CISTICOLA (Temminck). 

 TEMMINCK'S CISTICOLA. 



Sylvia cisticola TEMMINCK, Man. d'Orn. (1820), 1, 228. 



Cisticola cisticola SHABPE, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1883), 7, 259; Hand-List 

 (1903), 4, 197; WHITEHEAD, Ibis (1899), 221 (habits); GATES and 

 REID, Cat. Birds' Eggs (1905), 4, 191; MCGREGOR and WORCESTER, 

 Hand-List (1906), 89. 



Giig-nds, Batan; Tic-tic-ru-bo, Calayan. 



Batan (McGregor); Bohol (Everett); Calayan (McGregor); Camiguin N. 

 (McGregor) ; Fuga (McGregor) ; Luzon (Heriot, Steere Exp., Whitehead, Bart^ch) ; 

 Mindanao (Bourns d Worcester) ; Sulu (Bartsch). Indian and Malay Peninsulas, 

 southern Europe, Indo-Chinese countries, Greater and Lesser Sunda Islands, 

 Ceylon, China, Africa, Celebes. 



Male, in worn plumage (Batan Island, June). Above earthy brown; 

 head and neck nearly uniform, much faded; feathers of back and tail- 

 coverts with wide blackish brown centers; lores and superciliary line 

 white; cheeks, ear-coverts, and under parts white; flanks and thighs 

 ocherous-buff ; wing-feathers dark or blackish In-own with whitish edges; 

 rectrices dark brown basally, followed by a wide ocherous-buff space, 

 subterminal band blackish brown, wide tip white. Wing, 53; tail, 40; 

 culmen from base, 12 ; bill from nostril, 8 ; tarsus, 23. 



Male and female in fresh plumage (Calayan Island, November). 

 Similar to the male described, but feathers on head blackish hi own. edited 

 with buff; neck, rump, and edges of dorsal feathers dark buff. mon> 

 rusty buff on rump; edges of wing-feathers wider and more rusty than 

 in the worn plumage; middle pair of rectrices dark buff with blarkish 

 shaft-streaks, the shafts light; outermost pair of rectrices with outer 

 webs and wide tips white, the greater part of inner webs blackish ; 

 remaining rectrices with wide white tips and subterminal black hands 

 the latter fading into dark brown toward base of tail ; under part of 

 body white; breast and crissum washed with buff; flanks and thighs 

 rusty buff. Male, wing, 56; tail, 53; culmen from base, 11; bill from 

 nostril, 7 ; tarsus, 22. Female, wing, 48 ; tail, 46 ; culmen from base, 10 ; 

 bill from nostril, 7 ; tarsus, 20. 



On the authority of Colonel Legge, Sharpe says that in the male the 

 inside of the mouth is black, while in the female it is fleshy. 



"Common in the deep grass of the open fields. The habits of the 

 various species of this genus found in the Philippines are practically 

 the same. They live in the grass, and when flushed fly in a curious, jerky 

 way for a short distance, and then drop back into the grass where they 

 instantly disappear. They sometimes perch on tall grass stems or low 

 bushes, and make a series of noises more like the notes of some ?reat 

 grasshopper than those of a bird. We several times found them perched 



