142 SCOTOCERCA 



tail brown, obsoletely barred, tipped with white, and with a subterminal 

 blackish band ; under parts silky white, with obsolete streaks on the 

 throat ; flanks washed with pale warm buff ; bill plumbeous brown, the 

 lower mandible flesh coloured at the base ; legs flesh yellow ; iris 

 yellowish brown. Culmen 0'4, wing 17, tail 2'85, tarsus, 0'7 inch. Female 

 similar but slightly smaller. 



Hob. Asia Minor and Palestine, south to N. E. Africa and 

 Arabia where it is resident. In India it is replaced by a very 

 closely allied, if distinct, form, P. lepida Blyth, which is some- 

 what paler, and has the subterminal bars on the tail very 

 indistinct. 



Frequents fields, gardens, and marshes, is very active and 

 restless, and is hard to flush from the dense vegetation it 

 frequents. Its call-note is low and clear and when uttering it 

 the bird often carries its tail quite erect; its song which is 

 powerful and melodious is either uttered from a tall grass-stem 

 or a twig, or else as the bird is hovering in the air. It feeds 

 on small insects which it obtains amongst the foliage or on the 

 ground. It breeds from May to August and builds an egg- 

 shaped nest with the entrance hole at the side, of dried grass 

 lined with plant-down, which it places in a low bush or a bunch 

 of grass. The eggs, 4 or 5 in number, are pale greenish white, 

 very closely and finely dotted with pale red, the dots being 

 more numerous round either the larger or smaller end. In size 

 they measure about 0'61 by 0'44. 



SCOTOCERCA, Sundevall, 1872. 



201. STREAKED SCRUB- WARBLER. 

 SCOTOCERCA INQUIETA. 



Scotocerca inquieta, (Cretzschm) in Etipp. Atlas, p. 55, tab. 36, fig. B. 

 (1826) ; Dresser, ix. p. 99, pi. 653, fig. 2 ; Blanf. E. Pers. ii. p. 207, 

 pi. xiii. fig. 2 ; Sharpe, Cat. B. Br. Mus. vii. p. 213 ; S. eremita 

 (Tristr.), Ibis, p. 76, 1867 ; Melizophilus striatus, Brooks, Ibis, 

 1872, p. 180. 



ad. (Baluchistan). Upper parts greyish hair-brown, the crown dis- 

 tinctly, the back indistinctly streaked with dark brown ; wings and tail 

 light brown, externally paler margined ; lores and supercilium sandy 

 buff ; a spot before and a streak behind the eye blackish ; sides of head 

 greyish buff ; under parts white, the throat streaked with blackish brown, 

 .the flanks washed with greyish buff ; bill dark brown, the lower mandible 



