124 LUSCIJIOLA 



and musical and by no means wanting in depth or power. It 

 breeds in May in dense patches of aquatic herbage, and its nest 

 which is fastened to the dense growing stems of aquatic plants, 

 is constructed of dry stems of grasses, fine rootlets, and often a 

 little moss, and lined with fine bents, horsehair, feathers and 

 sometimes wool. Its eggs from 4 to 6 in number are pale 

 yellowish brown or warm buff, closely clotted with dark brown or 

 greenish buff, and sometimes streaked with short hair- like lines 

 of black. In size they average about 0*65 by 0*52. 



LUSCINIOLA, Gray, 1841. 

 176. THICK-BILLED WARBLER. . 

 LUSCINIOLA AEDON. 



Lusc'miola aedon, (Pallas.) Reis. Buss. Reichs. iii. p. 695 (1776) ; 

 (Schrenck), Beis. &c. Amurl. i. p. 367, Taf. xii. figs. 1, 2, 3 ; 

 Seebohm, Cat. B. Br. Mus. v. p. 121 ; Tacz. J.f.0. 1873, Taf. (eggs)i. ; 

 Pleske, Prjevalsky's Reisen, ii. Taf. iii. fig. 1 ; id. Orn. Ross. ii. 

 p. 381 ; (Gates), F. Brit. Ind. Birds, i. p. 390. 



Tschok- tschok, Russ. 



$ (Dauria). Upper parts fulvous olive brown, rump brightest ; quills 

 and tail brown with fulvous brown margins ; no eye-stripe ; under parts 

 buffy white, paler on the chin, throat, and abdomen ; flanks, vent, and 

 under tail-coverts washed with buff; upper mandible pale horn, under 

 mandible flesh-colour ; legs and eyelids plumbeous ; iris amber brown. 

 Culmen 0'8, wing 3'25, tail 3 '4, tarsus I'l ; first quill 0'8 long, second 

 intermediate between the 7th and 8th, 3rd and 4th nearly equal and 

 longest. In the autumn the upper and under parts are washed with 

 russet brown and in the young birds this tinge is more strongly developed. 

 Sexes alike. 



Hob. South-eastern Siberia from the Yenesei to the Pacific, 

 and Northern China ; wintering in India, Burma, Malacca, and 

 the Andamans. 



Frequents humid and marshy places, bushes or low trees 

 close to water, or, on passage, bushes on the plains ; extremely 

 shy, it hides amongst the dense herbage on the least sign of 

 danger. Its call-note resembles the syllables tschok t tschok, 

 hence its Russian name, and its song is deep and melodious 

 and is uttered throughout the day, but especially in the 

 evening. It breeds in June, and places its nest from one 

 to five feet above the ground on a willow or birch bush or 

 a Spiraea. The nest is deep cup-shaped constructed of dry 



