LUSCINIOLA. 3C9 



Coloration. Male. The forehead, crown, and nape chestnut ; 

 back, scapulars, and rump ashy; upper tail-coverts ashy rufous ; 

 tail chestnut, the feathers blackish near the basal halves of the 

 shafts ; wings and coverts brown edged with ashy ; cheeks, lower 

 half of the ear-coverts, and entire lower plumage white, tinged 

 with ashy on the sides of the body; thighs ferruginous. 



Female. Differs from the male merely in the tail-feathers being 

 blackish near the shafts throughout the whole length, with an 

 expansion of this colour near the tip. 



lu females the lower mandibles are fleshy pink, upper mandibles 

 horny brown ; the legs and feet were fleshy pink in one, in another 

 the feet, claws, and back of tarsus were fleshy, front of tarsus 

 brown ; iris in one salmon, in the other deep brown (Hume <$f 

 Davisoii). 



Length about 5 ; tail 1-5 ; wing 1-9 ; tarsus '8 ; bill from 

 gape -8. 



Distribution. The extreme southern point of Tenasseriin, extend- 

 ing down the Malay peninsula to the islands. 



Genus LUSCINIOLA, Gray, 1841. 



The genus Lusciniola, according to my views, contains but one 

 Indian species. Seebohra, on the contrary, in addition to the pre- 

 sent species, makes it include Tribura, Arundinax, Herbivocula, 

 and a portion of Phylloscopus. From the first of these, Lusciniola 

 differs in having fairly strong rictal bristles, and from the other 

 three in having no supplementary hairs in front of the rictal 

 bristles, and there are other differences in the shape of the wing 

 and tail. 



In this genus there appears to be a complete spring moult, but 

 unaccompanied by any change of structure or by any noteworthy 

 alteration of colour. The sexes are alike. 



The Sedge- Warbler is quite aquatic in its habits, being always 

 found iii reed-beds in or close to water, from which it is not easily 

 dislodged. It is very likely to be a resident species in India as it 

 is in Southern Europe. 



L. melanopogon recalls to mind Acroceplialus bistrigiceps, from 

 which, however, it may be separated at once by its large first 

 primary. 



Lusciniola has a slender bill about two thirds the length of the 

 head, two clearly visible rictal bristles but no supplementary hairs 

 in front of them, the forehead being smooth and sharply defined ; 

 the wing is fairly long, the first primary less than half the length 

 of the second, which reaches nearly to the tip of the wing ; the 

 tail is well graduated, and the tarsus of considerable length. 



377. Lusciniola melanopogon. The Moustached Sedge-Warbler. 



Sylvia melanopogon, Tenim. PL Col pi. 245, f. 2 (1823). 

 Lusciniola melanopogon (Temm.), Hume, S. F. i, p. 190; id. Cat, 



VOL. I. 2 B 



