216 A LIST OF THE BIRDS OF PEQU. 
The second primary is generally equal to the fourth. Out 
of 50 birds only three have tke second equal to the third. 
The first varies in length from *35 to °5. 
The streaks on the lower surface become reduced in what 
I take to be aged birds. The bird least marked in my series 
has a few streaks only on the centre of the breast and on the 
flanks, with one or two faint marks on the under tail-coverts. 
In this state it is very: like the Indian L. hendersoni. The 
majority of the birds are densely streaked from the chin to the 
tail-coverts, except on the abdomen, and all these are charac- 
terized by a richer tone of colouring beneath. 
The tail-coverts vary in the most extraordinary manner. 
In many of the birds they are entirely unmarked; in others 
densely streaked, and this follows no rule viewing it in connec- 
tion with the amount of streaking on the other parts of the 
lower plumage. I can make no deductions of value from the 
examination of my large series. We require authenticated 
birds of the year, and old birds shot off the nest before any- 
thing can be made out for certain. 
250.—Locustella certhiola, Pall. (521.) 
Another bird, which is extremely common near Kyeikpadein 
and portions of the canal, but one which is never by any 
chance seen except by accident. It swarms in inundated 
paddy fields to an incredible extent. [I have procured it from 
the 18th October to the 16th December. At this latter date 
the paddy harvest begins, and the bird disappears entirely. 
Unlike /anceolata it does not appear to go into grass at all. 
It frequents those fields in which the paddy is very high 
and thick, and very swampy. It rises at one’s feet and settles 
again at once, affording only a snap shot at about two yards 
distance. 
The young bird up to October has the whole upper plumage, 
including the coverts and tertiaries, blackish brown ; the feathers 
of the head narrowly, and all the others broadly, margined 
with reddish brown; rectrices chiefly blackish brown, 
irregularly margined with rufous brown, and very broadly 
terminated with whitish. 
The lower plumage is buff, pale on the throat and upper 
breast, dark on the breast, and increasing in depth of colour 
down to the tail-coverts; the throat and breast are closely 
spotted with triangular blackish brown marks ; stripe over the 
eye, and a streak from the bill under the cheeks and ear-coverts, 
yellowish buff; ear-coverts hair brown; under wing-coverts 
whitish; primaries and secondaries dark brown, narrowly 
edged with reddish brown. 
