TEMMINCK'S LOCUSTELLE. 41 



for its grasshopper alliances and small size, both of which qualities 

 keep it out of the specimen-hunter's sight. It is mentioned by 

 Degland as occurring in Siberia as well as in South Russia, and the 

 bird I figure is from China, while the egg is from South Siberia. It 

 is not mentioned by Jerdon, although we might expect it to turn up 

 in a country so well worked, and accordingly we find Mr. Hume 

 describing it as a new species in the fifth number of "Stray Feathers," 

 under the designation of Locustella subsignata. Mr. Hume's bird was 

 shot in the Andaman Islands, in the neighbourhood of Port Blair, by 

 Mr" Davison. Mr. Hume's measurements are slightly larger than Mr. 

 Swinhoe's, but the description leaves no room for doubt. Mr. Swinhoe 

 counts the bastard primary as the first, while Mr. Hume leaves it 

 out, which makes the second true primary in Mr. Hume's bird and 

 in ours the longest in the wing. Mr. Davison's account of the cap- 

 ture is worthy of transcribing: — "I found this little Locustelle 

 frequenting the same places as Cxjanecula ccerulecula, Pallas, namely, 

 the dense scrubby weed growing about the dried-up padclyfields: I 

 also on two occasions saw it in a garden in a patch of beans, and 

 once I flushed it from a patch of sugar-cane. It is an awful little 

 skulk, and will let itself be almost trodden upon before it will rise. 

 It makes its way rapidly through the tangled weeds, and runs along 

 the ground in a truly surprising manner. In walking through the 

 woods I have on several occasions seen this little bird start up and 

 run rapidly along the ground. I am unable to say whether it is a 

 permanent resident at the Andamans or not." 



Mr. Swinhoe, in the P. Z. S., for 1863, describes the discovery of 

 this species there under the heading of Locustella minuta, as follows: — 

 "This again is allied to the L. Rail, but is a very diminutive species, 

 strongly marked and spotted; it may perhaps turn out to be a resi- 

 dent species in South China. I have one shot at Amoy on the 18th. 

 May, 1861, and Captain Blakiston procured a pair in Canton in 

 October. The Canton birds are strongly washed with yellow, and are 

 therefore, I presume, birds of the year. Length 4.7; wing 2.15; tail 

 1.6, the feathers much graduated; tarsi 0.65; bill, along culmen 0.38, 

 to gape 0.6. Bill blackish brown on the culmen and the small apical 

 part of the gonys; the rest of it, and inside of mouth, pale yellowish 

 flesh-colour; legs and toes large and thick; claws thin and pointed; 

 hind claw long and Pipit-like : all of a deep brownish flesh-colour, 

 with paler edges and soles. First quill diminutive; second one-twelfth 

 shorter than third, which is longest; colouring similar to L. Ravi, and 

 perhaps as variable, according to the state of its plumage." 



The measurements above are evidently, when compared with mine, 

 vol. in. G 



