424 SYLYITD^. 



433. Cryptolopha burkii. The Black -lr owed Flycatcher-Warbler. 



Sylvia burkii, Burton, P. Z. S. 1835, p. 153. 



Culicipeta burkii (Burton], Blyth, Cat. p. 183; Horsf. $ M. Cat. i, 

 p. 341 ; Jerd. B. I. ii, p. 199 ; Stoliczka, J. A. S. B. xxxvii, pt. ii, 



p. 47 ; McMaster, J.A.8. B. xl, pt, ii, p. 212 ; Blanford, J. A. S. 

 B. xli, pt. ii, p. 54. 

 Cryptolopha burkii (Burton), Hume, Cat. no. 569; Sharpe, Cat. B. 



xli, pt. ii, p. 54. 

 tolopha burkii ( 

 M. iv, p. 395 ; Hume, S. F. xi, p. 224. 



The Slack-browed Warbler, Jerd. 



Coloration. Two broad black bands, one on either side of the 

 crown, reaching to the base of the bill, and enclosing an olive-green 

 stripe ; sides of the head up to the black coronal band yellow tinged 

 with olive ; a conspicuous yellow ring round the eye ; the whole 

 lower plumage bright yellow ; the whole upper plumage olive- 

 green ; wings, coverts, and tail brown, edged with olive-green, the 

 greater coverts also tipped with yellow ; the two outer pairs of 

 tail-feathers white on the inner webs, the third pair occasionally 

 with some white. 



Upper mandible deep brown ; lower mandible pale yellowish 

 brown ; legs and feet pale brownish yellow ; iris hazel (Hume). 



Length about 4'5; tail 1*8; wing 2*1; tarsus *75 ; bill from 

 gape -55. 



Distribution. Throughout the Himalayas from the valley of the 

 Sutlej river to Bhutan, and along the Assam valley to Dibrugarh. 

 This species also occurs in the Khasi hills, Sylhet, Cachar, and 

 Manipur. Blyth records it from Arrakan, but he may have 

 mistaken for it C. tephrocephala, which at that time had not been 

 discriminated. 



I cannot find any specimen of this species from the plains of 

 India, but Blyth states that it is common near Calcutta in the 

 cold season, and McMaster records it from Kamptee in the Central 

 Provinces and Chikalda in Berar. 



The next two species have been confounded by almost all writers 

 except Hume and Brooks. The larger and paler form is the species 

 to which Hodgson, judging by his types which are still in the 

 British Museum, gave the name of ccantlioscliistus. It is also the 

 species to which Blyth applied the name of albosuperciliaris. 



The smaller ard darker form was without a distinctive term till 

 Brooks applied to it the name of jerdoni. It is also found in 

 Nepal, and is the bird referred to by Scully (I. c.) as Abrornis 

 vanthoschistus. Some of his specimens are in the British Museum, 

 and I have been able to examine them *. 



There is an extraordinarily fine series of both species in the 



* Scully may have procured both species in Nepal, and, judging from the 

 large average measurements of his seventeen specimens, he probably did. But 

 the birds which are now deposited in the British Museum as having been pro- 

 cured by him in Nepal are undoubtedly all C. jerdoni. He himself identifies 

 them with the lower figure in ' Lahore to Yarkand,' which is the small dark 

 form, C. jerdoni. 



