534 CISTICOLA CURSITANS. 



length of the respective tail-feathers is furthermore not to be depended upon at all. Mr. Hume notices the 

 conspicuous difference in the cold- and hot-weather plumage of this species in India, the head being striated in 

 the former, and uniform in the latter; but this does not appear to be the case in Ceylon, where there is but little 

 change in the seasons. Specimens from Madras, Nepal, and the North-west Himalayas have the lateral tail- 

 feathers variable in length, and nearly all have the head paler than in Ceylonese birds ; but the back in some is as 

 dark as in our up-country birds, while in others, notably in one or two from Nepal, it is very pale. The wing? vary 

 from 1*9 to 2"2 inches in the males, aud the tails from L'65 to 1-8 inch. A Nicobar example in the national 

 collection, which is, judging from its size, a female, has the wing 1-7 ; the upper surface is somewhat dark, and 

 the edgings of the feathers rather rufescent. 



Tin 1 West- and South-African representatives of Gisticola cursitans do not admit of separation from ours. I append the 

 following among the result s arrived at on comparison of a large number of specimens. A "West- African example, a 

 presumed female, from the River Volta, has the wing 1*85 inch, tail T55, bill to gape - 5, and is the exact counter- 

 part, as regards plumage, with one of my Galle birds ; another, a male from Potchefstroom, measures 2-03 in the 

 wing and 1"8 in the tail, and has the colour of the upper surface pale, like a Hambantota specimen, from which it 

 cannot be separated. Captain Shelley records the wing of Egyptian specimens as lit inch, and Mr. Gurney 

 that of Sicilian examples as 1*86 to 2*0. Turning south-eastwards from India we find that examples of the 

 Visticola from the Malayan archipelago are scarcely separable from ours. A male specimen from Macassar has the 

 wing l-'J, and the edgings of the back-feathers slightly more rufous than most Ceylon birds, but the rump not 

 more so than in some; in the length of the tail, which measures 1-0 inch, it differs from the generality of 

 C. cursitans from the continents of Asia, Europe, aud Africa; but it is not so sufficiently removed from them to 

 be treated as a distinct species. An example from Flores ( C. fuseimpilla, Wallace) has the head uniform brown, 

 but not more so than some of my old male specimens in summer plumage. The wiug measures 2-0 aud the tail 

 P6, and I do not think it cau be separated from C. cursitans. 



My space does not permit, me to instance further examples ; but the evidence here adduced is sufficient to show that 

 specimens throughout the vast range of the species may lie found to correspond with others from Ceylon, although 

 races, as a whole, from particular localities may present special characters. I also find that individuals from all 

 parts vary inter se in the proportion of the tail-feathers to one another. 



Distribution. — This curious little denizen of the grass frequents the whole island of Ceylon from Pt. Pedro 

 to Dondra Head and up to the elevation of Horton Plains. It is, of course, only found in grassy localities, 

 which are alone suited to its habits. It is equally abundant in these spots all over the low country, and is 



of • Stray Feathers ' which I have received 1 find an account of its (presumed) rediscovery by Mr. Bourdillon on 

 tin' L8th of April last year. Mr. Hume gives a minute description of the specimen; and it appears from it that 

 the 3rd, 4th, and 5th quills are almost equal, and the 1st 0-9 shorter than the -1th ; the tail of tun feathers, soft, 

 \cr\ broad, and much rounded. Length 5-75 inches ; wing 2-5; tail 2*5. The plumage is rich rufescent olive- 

 brown, darker on the crown and tail, which latter is obsoletely raved: the feathers of the upper surface lax, lower 



surface brow •■ aceous, with tl entre of the abdomen fulvous-white. This bird mayor may not be identical 



with Jerdon's species; it appears, except as regards the length of the tail, to correspond pretty well with the 

 .Museum example. Jerdon places his specimen at the eud of the Timaliinas ; and I consider the Ceylonese bird to 

 belong to what I have separated as the Drymceeine section of the Timaliidas, to the members of which its bill, tail, 

 wings, and feet ally it. I accordingly place it here ; but as I am uncertain as to whether my identification of it 

 as llic Schoenicola platyura of Jerdon is correct, I shall assign it a place in this work as a doubtful species. 

 The type of Jerdon's bird having been lost, aud no other apparently similar specimen having been subsequently 

 procured or noticed prior to the capture of the Travancore bird and my discovery of the Ceylonese skin in the 

 British .Museum, it will be a w-ry difficult matter to d itermine what Schoenicola platyura of Jerdon really is. 



Distribution. — The scanty information on the label of this bird affords me no clue as to where Mr. Cuming procured 

 j! in Ceylon. It would seem reasonable to suppose that it occurred in the island as a straggler from the coast of India, 

 otherwise subsequent collectors would surely have met with it. There is, perhaps, no spot more favourable to its habits 

 than the great swamp lying between the Negombo Canal and the highroad to that place from Colombo; in this vast 

 morass 1 met with one species of similar disposition, which has never before been seen in Ceylon, and I would therefore 

 indicate it as a not unlikely locality for the rediscovery of this vara avis. 



Jerdon's remarks on his meeting with Schoenicola platyura are: — " I only once observed this curious bird anions 



