1920.] Birds of North-East Chihli. 649 



3i. Acrocephahis sorghophihis (Swinlioe). 



Calamodijta sorglwpli'ila Swiuhoe, P. Z. S. 18G3, p. 292. 



Calamodus sorghophihis D. & O. p. 216. 



Acrocephaius sorghophilus La Touclie, Bulletin B. O. C 

 vol. xxix. 1912, p. 141 ; La T. p. 568. 



The first example of the Chinese Sedge-Warbler was shot 

 by Swiuhoe at Anioy (S.E. Fohkien) in May 1861. No 

 other appears to have been taken until January 1902, 

 when one was shot in the Babuyan group of the Philip- 

 pine Is. (Bulletin Philippines Museum, No. 4<, 1904, 

 p. 2y). After a further interval of nine years one specimen 

 was taken at Shaweishan, thii'ty miles from the mouth of 

 the Yangtse, on the 2nd of June, 1911. Five days after, I 

 shot another at Chinwangtao, ami at the end of that summer, 

 on the 22nd and 29th of August, 1911, I shot two more in 

 the crops near the port. In August and September 1912, 

 I again secured examples in the millet crops, where I found 

 this Reed- Warbler to be common. In the following spring 

 (1913) a large number passed the port on migration at the 

 end of May and beginning of June, :ind that year and the 

 following the bird was common, as before, in the millet 

 crops at the end of the summer. The spring passage thus 

 appears to take place late in JNIay and during the first week 

 in June, and tlie autumn passage from about the 22nd of 

 August to the 7th of Se[)tember. The breeding-grounds will 

 probably be found in south Manchuria and possibly within 

 the limits of north-east Chihli. As it has never been taken 

 on the Yangtse or in tlie Indo-Chinese countries, we must 

 presume that the line of migration followed by this bird is 

 from the Philippine Is. via Formosa to Fohkien, and thence 

 up the China coast to north-east Chihli. We have no 

 record of the autumn migration from elsewhere than Chin- 

 wangtao, but the presumption is that the course followed is 

 the same as in the spring. 



The bright-coloured upper parts of this Scdge-Warblcr 

 causes it to ])e easily distinguished in the open from the 

 more soberly tinted ^l. bistrigiceps, and its gliding flight 

 with outspread tail from A. tangorum. Spring birds are as 



2x2 



