PEINIA SOCIALIS. 



(THE ASHY WREN- WARBLER.) 



Prinia socialis, Sykes, P. Z. S. 1832, p. 89 ; Jerdon, Cat. B. S. India, Madr. Journ. 1839, xi. 

 p. 3 ; Blytb, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 143 (1849) ; Layard & Kelaart, Prodromus, Cat. 

 App. p. 57 (1853) ; Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1853, xii. p. 263 ; Horsf. & Moore, 

 Cat. B. Mus. E. I. Co. i. p. 321 (1854); Jerdon, B. of Ind. ii. p. 170(1863); Holdsw. 

 P. Z. S. 1872, p. 455 ; Hume, Nests and Eggs, ii. p. 337 (1874) ; Legge, Ibis, 1874, p. 21, 

 et 1875, p. 397 ; Hume & Butler, Str. Feath. 1875, p. 479 ; Morgan, Ibis, 1875, p. 321 ; 

 Fairbank, Str. Feath. 1S77, p. 406; Davidson & Wender, ibid. 1878, p. 83. 



Foodkeij Warbler, Latham, Hist. viii. p. 125. 



PhutM, Hind. (Blytb). 



Adult mah and f, male. Length 4-5 to 5-0 inches ; wing 1-75 to 1-9 ; tail 1-8 to 1-9 ; tarsus 075 to OS5 ; middle toe 

 and claw 0-55 to 06 : bill to gape 0-65. Females are smaller, as a rule, than males. 



Noti . This species has 10 tail-feathers. 



Iris pale red or brownish yellow ; bill black ; legs and feet fleshy reddish, claws dusky. 



Mule. Head, back, and wing-coverts dark bluish ashy, the colour just encircling the eye and covering the upper half of 

 the ear-coverts ; two long hairs spring from the nape on each side ; wings and tail umber-brown ; the tail with whitish 

 tips and a subterminal blackish-brown bar, the central pair of feathers less lightly tipped than the rest, and all 

 the bars showing darker beneath ; under surface rufescent buff, paling to whitish on the centre of the breast, and 

 tinged most deeply on the flanks with the rufescent hue ; thighs brownish rufous ; under wing rufescent. The 

 plumage of the under surface is silky. 



E mah . Has a buff and more or less conspicuous stride above the lores ; under surface not so deeply tinged with buff 

 ::s in the male. 



Young. Similar to the adult, with the exception of the less pronounced hues of the upper surface, and more albescent 

 character of the lower parts. 



Obs. For want of South-Indian specimens to compare with those in my possession from Ceylon, I am at present, I 

 regret to say, unable to deal satisfactorily with this species. I believe it will have to be separated as a smaller 

 browner race of P. socialis ; and I hope to refer to it again in the Appendix. It may turn out to be one of those 

 tonus which undergo a gradual change of plumage and size as they range south towards Ceylon, making it 

 difficult to define their limits as distinct birds from their northern representatives ; but even then I should almost 

 doubt the propriety of not separating the Ceylou race as a subspecies. Sykes's male type of P. socialis, which was 

 described from the Deccan, and is now in the India Museum, has the lower part of the back ashy, like the upper 

 part, as in Ceylon birds; but the wings and tail are a decided brownish rufous, and consequently much redder than 

 in the insular bird : the tail measures 2 - 2 and the wing 2-1 inches : another example (labelled $ ) has the wing 

 1/85 and the tail 2-3. There is a third example, from the Deccan (but not one of the types), which is similar to 

 the above in coloration, and measures 2-1 inches in the wing and 2-4: in the tail. These Deccan specimens are 

 nearer to our birds than those from more northern parts ; but it will be seen at once how much the tail, in parti- 

 cular, exceeds that of the Ceylon birds ; and the dark caudal bands are not so broad as in the latter. Travelling 

 northwards we find some examples have the ruinp ashy, like the back, but with much longer tails thau those from 

 Ceylon, and others with the rump brownish rufous, running so much into P. stewarti (which species has the back 

 overcast with an olivaceous hue, becoming quite rufous on the rump and upper tail-coverts) that I do not wonder 

 that Mr. Hume considers the two species doubtfully distinct. A Sikhim example collected by Anderson, and 

 labelled P. socialis, has the back similar to Sykes's specimens, and the wings and tail rufous-brown, somewhat 

 approaching in colour those of Ceylonese birds; but the secondaries are edged with brighter rufous-brown, and the 



