Birds of Celebes: Sj-lviidae. 517 



until some one will take the whole matter in hand and devote a few weeks 

 of investigation to show where and what local differences are most pronounced. 

 Several such have been hinted at and unsatisfactory species named by naturalists 

 with whom the seasonal and individual variations of plumage of C. cursitans do 

 not seem to have been sufficiently familiar, and these forms have been re- 

 embodied under the old name after broader studies by Mr. Dresser and Dr. 

 Sharpe. The specimen separated by Count Salvadori (Ann. Mus. Civ. Gen. 

 1875 VII, 663) as C. cekbensis does not seem to be a race of C. cursitans, but 

 a female or young of the species broadly spoken of as C.exilis: a form with 

 which Mr. Biittikofer identifies it (Weber's Reise III, 277). If this be so, 

 the only evidence of the occurrence of C. cursitans in the Celebes area rested 

 for years upon a male specimen in the British Museum , thus identified by 

 Walden (1) and Dr. Sharpe (e 2) , for Meyer's record of the species from 

 Togian (5) we now believe to relate to the next species, C.exilis; but it has 

 recently been found in South and Central Celebes and Peling Id., by the 

 Sarasins, Everett, Doherty, and our native hunters. In 1894 it had only 

 been recorded three times from Luzon, once (one specimen) from Bohol, once 

 from Palawan, not at all from Borneo, and notices of its occurrence in the 

 Lesser Sunda Islands, Sumatra and Java are equally hard to find, though there 

 is a large series of nests with eggs and birds from Java in the Dresden Museum. 

 At Singapore Mr. Kelham found it abundant. In Central China it is mainly 

 a migrant: "immense numbers" says Mr. Sty an, "appear in April to breed and 

 pass the summer with us", but in South China (Swatow) Mr. De La Touche 

 describes it as a common winter visitant, and it is quite possible that the scanty 

 examples which have been obtained in some of the East Indies owe their pre- 

 sence there to migration from some part of S.E.Asia, though, on the other 

 hand, the specimens of nests in the Dresden Museum prove that the species 

 breeds in Java. 



The habits of this little bird are well described by Legge (6), Hume 

 (16), Koenig (d 4, d 5), and others. 



^213. CISTICOLA EXILIS (Vig. Horsf.). 

 Tawny-headed Fan-tail Warbler. 



a. Cisticola grayi (1) AVald., Ann. N. H. 1872, IX, 400; (2) id., Tr. Z. S. 1872, YJH, 117; 



(3) Meyer, J. f. O. 1873, 405; (4) Tweedd., P. Z. S. 1878, 296. 



b. Cisticola celebensis (1) Salvad., Ann. Mus. Civ. Gen. 1875, VH, 663; (2) W. Bias., 



J. f. 0. 1883, 113, 119. 



c. Cisticola cursitans (1) Meyer (nee Frankl.j, Ibis 1879, 146. 



Cisticola exilis (1) Biittik., Zool.Erg. Weber's Reise Ost-Ind. 1893, HI, 277; (2) M. & Wg., 

 Abh. Mus. Dresd. 1895, Nr. 8, p. 13; (3, iid., ib. 1896, Nr. 1, p. 12; (4) iid., ib. 

 1S96, Nr. 2, p. 18; (5) Hart, Nov. Zool. 1897, 161. 



•'Burong kano kano", IMinahassa, Nat. Coll. 



The above references bear upon the locality Celebes only. 



