L.VTICILLA. 379 



eggs, four or five in number, are whitish speckled with clingy red, 

 and measure '62 by '48. 



38o. Franklinia cinereicapilla. Hodgson'* Wren- Warbler. 



Prinia cinereocapilla, Hodys., Moore, P. Z. S. 1854, p. 77 ; Horsf. $ 



M. Cat. i, p. 322 ; Jerd, B. 1. ii, p. 172 ; Hume, N. $ E. p. 341 ; 



Brooks, S. F. iii, p. 242 j Hume, S. F. vii, p. 320 ; id. Cat. no. 537 ; 



id. S. F. ix, j>. 286. 



Cisticola cinereicapilla (Moore}, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. vii, p. 256. 

 Frankliuia ciuereicapilla (HoJys.), Oates in Hume's N. $ E. 2nd ed. 



i, p. 246. 



Coloration. In winter the forehead and a supercilium are rufous ; 

 crown, nape, lores, and a band behind the eye dark bluish ashy, 

 narrowly cross-barred with blackish ; upper plumage and edges of 

 wing bright rufous ; tail rufous, tipped paler, and with a sub- 

 terminal dark band; cheeks, ear-coverts, and the whole lower 

 plumage pale fulvous. The summer plumage is not known. In 

 the dry state the bill is deep black and the legs fleshy brown. 



Length in winter about 4' 7 ; tail in winter 2-4 ; wing 1'7 ; 

 tarsus *8 ; bill from gape '6. 



Distribution. This rare species was procured by Hodgson in 

 some part of Nepal, and his birds are in the British Museum. I 

 have seen specimens that were procured by Mandelli in the 

 Bhutan Doars, and by Brooks at Dhunda on the Bhagiruthee river. 

 Blanford (J. A. S. B. xl, pt. ii, p. 165) notes this bird from Sikhim, 

 but his description does not in the least agree with this species, 

 but rather with F. rufescens. 



Hume surmises (1. c.) that F. cinereicapilla may be an abnormal 

 variety of Prinia socialis, but the different number of tail-feathers 

 in the two species is quite sufficient to negative such an idea. 



Genus LATICILLA, Blyth, 1845. 



The genus Laticilla contains two Indian species characterized 

 by very large tails. It is not certain whether their spring moult 

 is complete, but the tail is certainly moulted and differs in length 

 at the two seasons. The upper plumage is streaked in both 

 species. 



These birds frequent reeds and grass, and Hume describes the 

 Sind species as being the greatest skulker he knows of after Cettia 

 orientalis. 



The bill is about half the length of the head, there are three 

 rictal bristles, and the members of this genus agree with all other 

 Reed-birds in having no supplementary hairs, and in having the 

 frontal feathers short and smooth. The wing is very short and 

 rounded, the first primary large, and the next three graduated ; 

 the tail is very long and greatly graduated. 



