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ACEOCE'PHALUS STENTOEIITS. 



(THE CLAMOROUS REED-WARBLER.) 



Curruca stentorea, Hemp. & Ehr. Symb. Physicse. Aves, fol. bb (1828) ; Blanford, Ibis, 



1874, p. 79. 

 Agrobates brunnescens, Jerclon, Maclr. Journ. 1839, x. p. 269. 

 Acrocephalus brunnescens (Jerd.), Blytb, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 181 (1819) ; Horsf. & 



Moore, Cat. B. Mus. E. I. Co. i. p. 331 (1854); Jerdon, B. of Ind. ii. p. 154 (1863); 



Hume, Lahore to Yarkand, p. 214, pi. 16 (1873); Legge, Str. Feath. 1873, p. 488 



(first record from Ceylon). 

 Calamoherpe brunnescens (Jerd.), Blytb, J. A. S. B. 1846, xv. p. 288. 

 Calamodyta brunnescens (Jerd.), Hume, Str. Feath. 1873, p. 190; Adam, t.c. p. 381; 



Legge, ibid. 1875, p. 369. 

 Acrocephalus stentorius (H. & E.), Allen, Ibis, 1864, p. 97, pi. 1 ; Shelley, Ibis, 1871, p. 133 ; 



id. B. of Egypt, p. 95 (1872). 

 Calamodyta stentoria (H. & E.), Hume, Nests and Eggs, ii. p. 326 (1874). 

 Calamodyta meridionalis, Legge, Str. Feath. 1875, p. 369. 

 The Clamorous Sedge -Warbler, Shelley; The Greater Indian Heed-Warbler. Bora-jitta, 



Telugu. 



•'&'■ 



Adult male. Length 7 - 5 to 7'8 inches ; wing 3-3 to 3"4 ; tail 3-2 ; tarsus 1-05 to 1-1 ; middle toe and claw 0-9 to 1-0 : 

 bill to gape 1-05. 



Adult female. Length 7-5 inches ; wing 3-1; tarsus 1-0; middle toe and claw 0-85 to 0-95: bill as long as in 

 the male. 



Iris brownish yellow ; bill, upper mandible dark brown, lower fleshy at base, with dusky tip ; gape and inside of mouth 

 red ; legs plumbeous grey or greenish plumbeous ; feet olivaceous, claws brownish. 



Above shining olivaceous brown, in some specimens slightly darker on the forehead ; wings and tail brown, margined 

 with the hue of the back ; from the nostril over the eye a pale streak, beneath this the lores are dark brown : 

 orbital fringe fulvous-grey, dark at its posterior corner ; chin and throat white, with a fulvous-grey wash over the 

 chest and flanks, darkening on the lower parts above the thighs and paling again to white on the centre of the breast 

 and abdomen ; under tail-coverts whitish ; under wing and its edge fulvous ; between the flanks and abdomen the 

 grey hue is tinged with tawnjr. In non-breeding plumage the underparts are more fulvous than after the 

 spring moult. 



During the breeding-season, in July and August, the plumage becomes much abraded, causing the feathers of the 

 upper surface to have pale edgings, and exposing on the fore neck the dark portions of the shafts of the feathers, 

 which are quite concealed in a newly-plumaged bird, the effect of this being to produce a number of pale 

 brown strise. I observe the same feature in examples sent me by Mr. Hume from North India. 



Obs. I was under the impression, when writing of this species in 1875, that it merited separation from the Indian 

 form, on account of the presence of stria) on the chest, and the absence, in some specimens from Ceylon, of the 

 rusty hue on the upper surface, which is a character of the latter species. Mr. Hume, however, pointed out that 

 these characters were seasonal ; and I have since examined Cashmere specimens shot in July with these throat- 

 marks and find they show on the surface merely, on account of abrasion, the dark shaft-stripe, as above remarked, 

 existing more or less always, but being concealed by the tips of the feathers in birds in new plumage. Three 

 examples from the locality in question have very large bills, varying from 1-1 to 1-2 inch in length from the gape : 

 but one from Calcutta, perhaps bred in the lowlands, is the counterpart of my Ceylonese birds, both as regard- 

 plumage and length of bill (1-05 inch). 



