DRYMCECA INSULAKIS. 



(THE WHITE-BROWED WREN-WARBLER.) 



(Peculiar to Ceylon ?) 



Drymceca inomata, Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 142, spec. F (1849) ; Layard, Ann. & Mag. 



Nat. Hist. 1853, xii. p. 263 ; Layard & Kelaart, Cat. B. App. Prodromus, p. 57 (1853). 

 Drymoipus inomatus, Legge, J. A. S. (Ceyl. Br.), 1870-71, p. 50 ; Holdsw. P. Z. S. 1872, 



p. 456 ; Hume, Str. Feath. 1873, p. 439; Legge, Ibis, 1875, p. 396. 

 The Plain-Warbler, Grass-bird, Europeans in Ceylon. 



Adult male and female. Length 4-9 to 5-4 inches ; wing 1-85 to 2-15 ; tail 2-1 to 2-5 ; tarsus 0-8 to 09 ; hind toe and 

 claw 0-58 to 0-61 ; bill to gape 0-65 to 0-08. 



Iris very pale reddish or reddish yellow, a dark, thin, outer ring generally visible ; eyelid reddish ; bill black, with a 

 clearly-defined white base ; legs and feet flesh-colour or fleshy grey, claws dark brown. 



Above dull cinereous or greyish brown, pale on the rump and tinged with chestnut on the head ; wings and tail brown, 

 edged with rufescent greyish ; centre rectrices with faint cross rays ; tips of rectrices white, with an adjacent 

 blackish spot, both showing most beneath and least defined on the centre pair ; a conspicuous white supercilium 

 spreading over the lores, except at the corner of the eye, which is brown ; orbital fringe whitish, with the posterior 

 corner rufescent brown ; beneath white, tinged with buff, most strongly on the sides of the chest and belly; flanks 

 slightly dusky ; under wing and under tail-coverts buffy white ; thighs fulvous-brown. 



I do not observe any constant difference in the plumage of adults in the winter. Some specimens are certainly darker 

 in the cool season than the generality of breeding birds ; but I have an example, shot from the nest in July, quite 

 as dark as one killed at the latter end of October. The tail is, if any thing, shorter in winter than in summer. 



Young. Iris greyish ; bill, upper mandible brown, lower fleshy, with a dusky tip ; legs and feet pinkish flesh-colour. 

 Upper surface rufescent brown ; the wings broadly margined with brownish rufous ; tail tipped fulvous, with a trace 



of the subterminal bar ; supercilium narrow and buff- white, under surface more washed with fulvous buff than 



the adult. 

 The tail is even in the nestling, the lateral feathers being nearly as long as the centre pair. 



Obs. This Wren-Warbler has hitherto been united with the Indian species, Drymoipus inomatus, Sykes, to which it 

 is, indeed, very closely allied. I will, however, keep it distinct, on account of its shorter tail, generally smaller 

 size, and darker summer plumage, which differences, I find, exist between it and the type of the above-mentioned 

 species, which is preserved in the India Museum. Mr. Brooks has lately compared this specimen, which is from 

 the Deccan, with others of the northern race, which he and Mr. Hume have recently demonstrated to possess a 

 distinct summer and winter plumage, and he finds that it is identical with them. In his notice on this subject 

 (' Stray Feathers,' 1S76, p. 407), Mr. Hums contrasts the winter phase (D. longieaudatus, Ticket!) with the 

 summer (D. terricolor, Hume) as follows : — 



" Drymoipus inomatus. Winter, longieaudatus : lower surface warm buff ; upper surface strongly rufescent ; wings 

 hair-brown, strongly margined with dull ferruginous ; tail 3-2 inches, rufescent brown. Summer, terricolor : lower 

 surface white, with a faint yellowish tinge ; upper surface dull earthy grey-brown ; wings earthy brown, mar- 

 gined albescent ; tail 2-5, central feathers pale earthy brown." 



Now although, as I have above remarked, some winter specimens of our bird are darker than some summer ones, no such 

 thorough change or increased length of tail takes place as I have just quoted ; and as Mr. Brooks says (' Str. Feath.' 

 1876, p. 274) that Sykes's type of Drymoipus inomatus is in the longieaudatus or dark winter plumage of terricolor, 

 it follows that it must be a different bird from ours. Touching Mr. Brooks's decision, however, I would remark 

 that Mr. Moore and myself have compared a pale summer-plumaged Ceylon specimen with Sykes's type, and find 

 that the latter is the paler of the two, so that it cannot well be as dark as the above diagnosis of Mr. Hume, and 

 likewise former writings of Mr. Brooks's on the subject, would lead one to suppose D. longieaudatus really is. 

 Furthermore it would be necessary to possess summer specimens of the Deccan bird (there is no date of 

 procuring on Sykes's specimen) before a decided opinion could be pronounced whether it was identical with the 

 northern form. But whether Mr. Brooks be right or not, Sykes's bird does not agree well with ours ; for besides 



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