324 A PRACTICAL HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



Genus LUSCINIOLA Gray. 



LUSCINIOLA Gray, List. Gen. B., 2nd ed., p. 28 (1841 Monotype : L. 



melanopogon) . 



Plumage soft, tail with 12 rectrices, rounded, nearly as long 

 as wing. First primary less than half 2nd, inner web attenuated 

 from the middle, much longer than primary-coverts, 2nd much 

 shorter than 3rd ; 3rd, 4th and 5th about equal and longest. Bill 

 thin and pointed. Rictal bristles small and not very obvious. 

 One species in two subspecies. (The other Palaearctic and Indian 

 species which have been included by Seebohm and recent 

 ornithologists in this genus differ by having comparatively shorter 

 wings, more graduated tails and less powerful claws. They cannot 

 reasonably be separated from the African Bradypterus, which, in 

 the Catalogue B. Brit. Mus., was placed in another family in another 

 volume). 



LUSCINIOLA MELANOPOGON 



136. Lusciniola melanopogon melanopogon (Temm.). THE 

 MOUSTACHED WARBLER. 



SYLVIA MELANOPOGON Temminck, PI. Col. 245, fig. 2 (1823 Campagna 



near Rome). 



Lusciniola m. melanopogon, H. W. Ford-Lindsay, Brit. B., ix, p. 197. 



DESCRIPTION. Adult male and female. Winter. 

 Forehead, crown and nape black, each feather 

 fringed chestnut -brown ; mantle and scapulars 

 chest nut -brown, streaked black ; back, rump 

 and upper tail -co verts uniform chestnut-brown ; 

 narrow stripe from nostrils, over and behind 

 eye white ; lores and under eye black, feathers 

 tipped whitish ; ear -co verts black-brown ; sides 

 of neck chestnut -brown ; chin, throat, centre 

 of belly, axillaries and under wing-coverts 

 white ; breast, sides, flanks and under tail- 

 co verts chestnut -buff varying somewhat in 

 intensity (upper breast with varying number 

 of narrow brown streaks) ; tail-feathers black- _, 



, ,. j i. . . i -1,11 Moustached Warbler 



brown fringed chest nut -brown ; primaries black- (Lusciniola m ^^1^. 

 brown narrowly fringed on inner webs whitish vogon), tail from below. 

 and on outer pale brown ; secondaries same 

 but with more chestnut -brown fringes to outer webs ; primary- 

 coverts as primaries ; greater and median coverts as second- 

 aries ; lesser coverts uniform brownish - black. This plumage 

 is acquired by complete moult in early autumn. Summer. The 

 body -feathers are moulted February -March, but not wings or tail. 



