SILVtA. 397 



north I have not been able to trace it above Baha\valpur. It 

 is probably a resident species in all this tract, for Doig found the 

 young just able to fly in November near the Runn of Cutch. 



-101. Sylvia althaea. Hume's Lesser White-throated Warbler, 



Sylvia affinis, Blyth apud Jerd. B. I. ii, p. 209. 



Sylvia althaea, Hume, S. F. vii, p. 60 ; id. Cat. no. 582 ter ; Scully, 



Ibis, 1881, p. 450 ; Seebohm, Cat. B. M. v, p. 20; Barnes, Birds 



Bom. p. 233. 



The Allied Grey Warbler, Jerd. 



Coloration. Upper plumage greyish brown, slightly darker on 

 the crown and tinged with brown on the back ; tail dark brown, 

 the feathers narrowly margined and increasingly tipped with white 

 from the middle to the outside, the outermost feathers being 

 almost entirely white, only the basal portion of the inner web and 

 the shaft being brown ; wings dark brown, edged paler, the ter- 

 tiaries nearly the colour of the back ; lores, round the eye, and the . 

 ear-coverts dark brown ; the whole lower plumage pale cineraceous. 

 In summer, judging from a May specimen, the lower plumage is 

 duller. 



Iris dark brown ; legs and feet plumbeous black ; bill brownish 

 black, slaty-blue at base of lower mandible (Butler). 



Length 'about 6; tail 2'5 ; wing 2-6 to 2-8; tarsus '85; bill 

 from gape '6. The first primary is -6 to '7 long ; second primary 

 generally between sixth and seventh, rarely longer than seventh. 



Distribution. A rare winter visitor to the plains of India. It 

 has been obtained at Bahawalpur, Deesa, Jhansi, Ahmednagar, and 

 Belgaum, from all of which places I have examined specimens. It 

 also occurs at Byan Kheyl, in Afghanistan. It breeds in Kashmir 

 at an elevation of 9000 feet. 



Legge is of opinion that the Ceylon Whitethroat may be this 

 species. I have had no opportunity of examining a bird from that 

 island. 



It is no easy matter to identify Jerdon's two species of "White- 

 throat. His S. affinis, Bl., judging from its rarity and its larger 

 size, is, in my opinion, rightly identified by Seebohm with S. althcea. 

 Hume, however, identifies it with the true S. affinis. On the other 

 hand, he assigns Jerdon's S. curruca, which he (Jerdon) states is 

 common all over India, to the true S. curruca, a bird which is not 

 known to occur in India at all. 



If the views of Seebohm and myself are correct, the range 

 of S. althcea extends to the Carnatic and Ceylon, from which 

 places Jerdon records it. 



402. Sylvia affinis. The Indian Lesser White-throated Warbler. 



Curruca affinis, Blyth, J. A. S. B. xiv, p. 564 note (1845) : Brooks 



S. F. iii, p. 272. 

 Sylvia affinis (Blyth), Blyth, Cat. p. 187 ; Hume, S. F. i, p. 197, ii, 



