384 



Iris pale brown; eyelids plumbeous ; bill horny brown, dark on 

 the upper mandible, and rather pale on the lower; mouth dark 

 bluish brown ; legs pale pink ; claws pinkish horn-colour. 



Length up to 10 ; tail 4'9 ; wing 4 ; tarsus 1*4 ; bill from gape 

 1 ; the female is considerably smaller. 



Distribution. This bird has rather a remarkable area of distri- 

 bution so far as is known. Beginning on the west it is found at 

 Hoshungabad on the Nerbudda ; thence through Seoni to Sam- 

 balpur and in the valley of the Mahanadi in Orissa, where it has 

 been procured at Boad and Sonepur. Jerdon records it from the 

 banks of the Waiuganga and Indravati rivers. It is again found 

 in Dacca, and then in the Bhutan and Buxa Doars, extending up 

 to Sadiya. Southwards from Assam it occurs in all suitable 

 localities down to Central Tenasserim, being extremely common in 

 Manipur and many parts of Southern Pegu. It appears to be 

 absent from the Malay peninsula, but it is found again in Java. 



Habits, tyc. Breeds from April to June, or later, making a deep 

 cup-shaped nest of grass-leaves in a tussock of grass and laying four 

 eggs, which are white speckled with blackish and purplish brown ; 

 they measure -9 by '63. 



Genus SCHCENICOLA, Blyth, 1844. 



The genus Schcenicola contains one Indian bird which has been 

 till lately remarkable for its extreme rarity and local distribution. 

 We owe it to Mr. Prank Bourdillon and Col. Butler that we are now 

 well acquainted with the species. 



Schcenicola has two thorough and complete moults a year, chang- 

 ing the colour of its plumage and the length of its tail at each 

 nioulfc. The sexes are alike, and the young birds are tinged with 

 yellow. This genus resembles Meyalurus in many of its habits, 

 especially in its fondness for grass and reeds, and in its habit of 

 soaring in the air singing. 



In Schcenicola the bill is rather short, being only half as long as 

 the head ; there are two strong rictal bristles, no supplementary 

 hairs, and the feathers of the forehead are short and compact. The 

 wing is fairly developed, the third primary reaching to the tip of 

 the wing, and the first two being of large size. The tail at both 

 seasons is very ample and well graduated. The tarsus is remark- 

 ably long, denoting a ground-feeding bird. 



390. Schcenicola platyura. The Broad-tailed Grass- Warbler. 



Thimalia platyura, Jerd. Madr. Journ. L. 8. xiii, p. 170 (1844). 

 Schoenicola platyura (Jerd.}, Jerd. B. I. ii, p. 73 ; flume, S. .F. vii, 



p. 37 ; id. Cat. no. 442 ; Legge, Birds Ceyl p. 532 ; Brooks, S. F. 



ix, p. 209 ; Hume, 8. F. ix, pp. 211, 234; Butler, 8. F. ix, p. 401 ; 



Damson, 8. F. x, p. 383 ; Sharpe, Cat. B. M. vii, p. 110 ; Barnes, 



Birds Bom. p. 183 ; filacgregor, 8. F. x ; p. 438 ; Gates in Hume's 



N. $ E. 2nd ed. i, p. 251. 

 The Broad-tailed Reed-bird, Jerd. 



