370 SYLVIID^E. 



no. 518 bis; Held, S. F. x, p. 44 ; Seebohm, Cat, B. M. v, p. 132; 

 Barnes, Birds Bom. p. 211. 



Fig. 117. Head of L. melanopogon. 



Coloration. Forehead, crown, and nape black, edged with rufous- 

 brown ; hind neck, back, arid scapulars rufous-brown, streaked with 

 dark brown ; rump and upper tail-coverts plain rufous-brown ; 

 wings and tail brown, edged with rufous-brown ; lores and under 

 the eye dark brown ; a white supercilium from the nostrils to the 

 nape ; ear-coverts mixed rufous and white ; chin, throat, and 

 abdomen white ; remainder of lower plumage very pale buff ; axil-, 

 laries and under wing-coverts white. 



Bill deep greenish brown above, below lighter and fleshy at 

 base ; legs, feet, and claws greenish brown ; iris brown (Bingham). 



Length about 6 ; tail 2-3 ; wing 2'5 ; tarsus *85 ; bill from 

 gape -65. 



Distribution. Sind, and eastwards near Delhi, Etawah, and 

 Lucknow, in swamps and reed-beds on the margins of lakes and 

 rivers. This bird is probably a resident in all these places, although 

 no one appears to have procured it in the summer. It extends 

 westward into Europe. 



Genus CISTICOLA, Kaup (1829). 



The genus Cisticola contains four Indian species of small size, 

 which, on account of their complex plumage, have given much 

 trouble to the ornithologist. They are now much better under- 

 stood than they were a few years ago. The Indian species all have 

 two complete moults a year, in the case of one giving rise to no 

 alteration of colour worthy of note, but in the other three causing 

 a very decided change of colour between the summer and the 

 winter plumages, and accompanied in all four by a radical change 

 in the form and length of the tail. In three species the sexes are 

 alike in the winter only, but in the fourth the sexes are alike 

 throughout the year. 



Sharpe has done excellent work in his Catalogue in bringing 

 these troublesome birds into some order, but he has united three 

 Indian species^ an error of which I was myself guilty a few years 

 ago. With the larger amount of material now available, however, 

 in the Hume and Tweeddale collections, it is possible to arrive at 

 safer conclusions. 



The Fantail-Warblers are resident species in India, inhabiting 

 grass and corn, but are in no degree aquatic in their habits. They 



