OUR INDIAN CISTIC0LJ3. 91 



6.— Cisticola erythrocephala, Jerd.—JBly., J. A. S., 

 B., XX., 523, 1851. 



It will be observed that I assume the identity of the South 

 European and Indian birds. I have only examined one of the 

 former (from South Italy), but that one I was able to match pre- 

 cisely, according to the best of my judgment, with a bird killed 

 in the same month, in Etawah (North- West Provinces, India), 

 and therefore, although Mr. Gray (H. L. 200) keeps them se- 

 parate, I have not, knowing how much the bird varies, and 

 how little this has as yet been recognized, thought it advisable 

 to follow him in this. 



Common as C. cursilans is in the basin of the Mediterra- 

 nean, India, China and Japan, I cannot discover that the great 

 difference in its winter and summer plumage has as yet been 

 clearly pointed out. 



Yet the birds look very different indeed in January and July, 

 so much so, that Major Godwin-Austen has described the bird 

 in its cold weather garb as a different species, No. 2 on our list. 



Typically in the hot season, the head is a comparatively dull, 

 lighter or darker, almost uniform brown, (in some almost abso- 

 lutely so, but this is an individual difference,) more or less 

 feebly streaked with a paler and yellower brown or yellowish 

 buff or fawn. 



The back is darker brown, the feathers edged with much the 

 same color as the light streaking of the head. 



The tail spread, and looked at from above, has the central 

 feathers brown, white tipped, the tipping preceded by a dark 

 brown bar, and this again by a more or less obsolete barring, 

 paler, at times with a rufescent tinge. The lateral tail feathers 

 are darker, have broader white tips preceded by a blackish 

 band, and that again by a very broad light rufous bar, usually 

 much clouded with brown on the outer web. 



Typically in the cold senson, the head is very boldly striated 

 black and pale fulvous, or buff; so too is the back. 



The tail, when spread, has the centre feathers uniform brown, 

 broadly margined (so broadly at times as to leave only a dark 

 brown shaft stripe along the middle) with pale rufous or fawn 

 brown ; the lateral tail feathers are brown, white tipped, and 

 darker just before the tip, but there is no rufous or trace of it. 

 Looked at from below, at both seasons the tail feathers exhibit 

 conspicuous greyish white and black tippings. 



These are the typical plumages ; but individual birds killed 

 on the same day and at the same place, vary a little in tint ; 

 some are brighter and more rufous, some duller and browner. 



