222 ON A NEW SPECIES OF TRIBURA (dUMETICOLA.) 



first primary is much too large for Locustella, and we have 

 not the streaked Locustella upper plumage. As therefore style 

 of coloration, and especially the bordered lower tail-coverts, 

 the shape of the bill, the legs and feet, the wing and tail, and 

 the long upper and lower tail-coverts, all agree with Dumeticola, 

 I think it should stand in that genus. Mr. Hume has shewn 

 that the type of the genus is strepera, which is a true Acroce- 

 phalus, and he proposes to place all the Dumeticola group in 

 Schcenicola. I think this is a mistake, for the following reason : 

 Schcenicola platyura, Jerdon, is said to be a Timaline bird 

 with only ten tail feathers,* and its bill is described as rather 

 stout. I have not seen it myself, but only go by a sketch of 

 Pr. Jerdon's, his description and Mr. Hume's in Stray 

 Feathers, Vol. VII., pp. 37, 38. If Schcenicola platyura be 

 a Timaline bird with only ten tail feathers, our birds with 

 twelve, and very close to Locustella and Acrocephalus, cannot 

 be placed in its genus. For my own part, I think a new 

 generic term is wanted instead of Dumeticola. 



I measured Mr. Oates's ten examples, and as a few measure- 

 ments may be useful I give them : — 



In colour of upper surface this bird is of a reddish brown, 

 slightly tinged with olive on the back. It is not nearly such 

 a dark rufous brown as Dumeticola affinis, but as before 

 observed, somewhat resembles the upper surface colour of 

 Acrocephalus dumetorum, only more rufous, especially on wings, 

 tail, and crown of head. B. major is of a much greyer brown 

 than the new bird. It is in fact an intermediate bird, both as 

 regards size and colour, between major and affmis ; and hence 

 its name. The bill is about as much longer than that of ajjinis 

 as it is shorter than that of major ; in other respects major 



* This is a mistake. I have since had an opportunity of examining Mr. Hume's 

 specimen of this species, and have recorded a separate note on it, vide supra pp. 209-11. 

 — W. E. B. -. '• 



