396 SYLVIIDvE. 



lower plumage white, tinged with very pale buff, especially on the 

 sides of the body ; under tail-coverts slaty grey, broadly tipped 

 with white. 



Figs. 127, 128. Head and foot of S.jerdoni. 



Female. Crown, forehead, and nape brown, and the ear-coverts 

 blackish ; otherwise like the male. 



Legs and feet slaty-grey ; bill blackish brown, slaty at base of 

 lower mandible ; iris pale straw or dirty white (Butler}. 



Length about 7 ; tail 2' 9 ; wing 3-2 ; tarsus '9 ; bill from 

 gape -85. The first primary is about '75 in length, and the 

 second is between the fifth and sixth. 



This bird differs from its European representative, S. orphea, in 

 having a much larger bill and paler lower plumage. 



Distribution. A winter visitor to a great portion of India, from 

 September to April. It inhabits the whole peninsula as far 

 as Trichinopoly on the south and Manbhoom in Chutia Nagpur on 

 the east. It appears to be confined to the plains in winter. It 

 passes through Grilgit in the spring and autumn migrations, and 

 breeds in Turkestan. 



400. Sylvia nana. The Desert Warbler. 



Curruca nana, Hempr. 8f Ehrenb. Symb. Phys., Aves, fol. cc (1833). 

 Sylvia delicatula, Hartl. Ibis, 1859, p. 340, pi. x, fig. 1 ; Hume, S. F. 



i, p. 199. 

 Sylvia nana (H, 8f E.\ Hume, Cat. no, 583 bis; Doia, 8. F. ix, 



p. 280; Seebohm, Cat. B. M. v, p. 26; Barnes, Birds Bom. p. 234. 



Coloration. Lores and round the eye white ; forehead, crown, 

 nape, back, and scapulars fawn-brown; rump and upper tail-coverts 

 rufous; middle tail-feathers rufous, with black shafts; the next 

 two pairs dark brown, margined with rufous ; the next pair 

 brown, margined with pale rufous and tipped white ; the next 

 white on the outer web, dark brown on the inner with a white 

 tip ; the outermost pair pure white ; wings brown, margined with 

 rufescent ; the whole lower plumage very pale huffish white. 



Iris pale yellow ; bill dusky brown above, whitish flesh below ; 

 legs and feet straw-yellow (Butler}. 



Length about 5; tail 2; wing 2-3; tarsus *75. The first 

 primary is *4 long; the second is equal to the sixth or seventh. 



Distribution. The Desert portions of Sind, Bahawalpur, Eaj- 

 putana, and the southern parts of the Panjab. To the east this 

 Warbler extends as far as Sirsa, Hiesar, and Jodhpore. To the 



