LOCUSTELLA CEETHIOLA. 549 



2-62 inches in the wing and 2-4 in the tail. It has the upper surface more uniform than in L. certhiola, the dark 

 centres of the head and back-feathers being almost obsolete ; the lower back and rump are uniform rusty brown : 

 wings plain brown, edged with rusty ; tail rusty brown, with dark subterminal patches and light tips to the 

 feathers ; throat, breast, and lower parts white, with a brownish wash on the chest. This form has a more 

 eastern general distribution than the subject of this article, being found round the sea of Okhotsk, and is said to 

 winter in Borneo and other Malay islands. Locustella nevia of Europe is likewise not distantly allied to the present 

 species; it has the upper surface more olivaceous, aud wants the rusty hue characteristic of L. certhiola ; the 

 dark centres of the upper-surface feathers are not pronounced, and the tail is uniform olive-brown, without the 

 black subterminal patch and whitish tips ; the plumage of the under surface is not unlike that of L. certhiola ; 

 the bases of the under tail-coverts are dark, and there are dark mesial streaks reaching to the tips of the feathers. 

 The example on which these remarks are based is in the collection of Mr. Seebohm, and was procured in Heligo- 

 land ; it measures in the wing 2-4 ; tail 2-3 : tarsus 0-75 ; bill to gape 0-6. A species common in China, the 

 L. macropus of Swinhoe, which I take to be the same as L. hendersoni, resembles the European bird very closely, 

 but has the wing and tail shorter ; an example iu the collectiou of the late Mr. Swinhoe has the wing 2-2 inches 

 and the tail 2-0. 

 This group of birds is so close to the Eeed- Warblers, Acrocephalus, that it can merely be considered to form a 

 subgenus of the latter ; and the only characters which warrant this distinction are the small rictal bristles and 

 lengthened under tail-coverts. 



Distribution. — This Grasshopper-Warbler has been only recently added to the avifauna of Ceylon ; it 

 was the last discovery made by myself before leaving the island. I met with it in the great swamp between 

 the old and new Negombo canals in February 1877. This vast marsh, already several times referred to in 

 this work, and which is called Mutturajawella by the Sinhalese, is covered from end to end with an almost 

 impenetrable coat of dense and matted vegetation, in many places about 3 feet in height ; and frequenting 

 the thickest parts in it I found this bird. During several visits I made to this place I observed three or 

 four examples, but only succeeded in shooting two of them. It is of course migratory to the island, and 

 must of necessity pass through India on its way to Ceylon ; but though Jerdon identifies it as a species 

 which he found "in long grass in the neighbourhood of Mhow," Mr. Hume considers the bird thus spoken 

 of to be the more eastern form, Locustella hendersoni. It is not quite clear what species the L. rubescens of 

 Blyth (J. A. S. B. 1845, p. 582), found by him frequenting long grass in the neighbourhood of Calcutta, really 

 is; for Swinhoe considered it, in his catalogue of the birds of China, to be identical with Middendorff's bird, 

 L. ochotensis, for which species young examples of L. certhiola have been, it appears, hitherto mistaken. 

 Mr. Seebohm, who was the first to obtain well authenticated examples of the young of L. certhiola, remarks, 

 in his valuable paper on the birds of Siberia (' Ibis/ 1879, p. 13) : — "Authentic skins of this bird in first 

 plumage, now for the first time obtained, are very interesting. They prove that the various skins to be found 

 in collections labelled L. ochotensis by Dyboffsky, from Lake Baikal, are simply the young of L. certhiola." 

 These I have described above ; and from Jerdon's description of L. rubescens I should certainly say that it 

 was nothing but the young of the present species. However, be that as it may, our Ceylonese bird is 

 certain to be found in India : my specimens, when I first returned to England, were at once identified as 

 L. certhiola by Mr. Seebohm ; and now that I have, through the kindness of himself and Mr. Sharpe, been able 

 to mature my acquaintance with the genus, I am myself prepared to state that the Ceylonese bird is L. certhiola. 



It is found in various parts of Siberia, including the province of Trans-Baikal, and extends into China. 

 Mr. Seebohm writes of it : — " As I passed through Yenesaisk on my return journey, towards the end of August, 

 I found this rare Grasshopper-Warbler breeding in the swampy thickets near the bank of the river." 



In the ' Birds of Mongolia/ translated into English in Rowley's ' Orn. Miscellany/ Col. Prjevalsky writes 

 as follows : — " It is tolerably abundant in the Hoang-ho valley, but is very rare at Ala-shan and Halha, 

 inhabiting only small clear marshes. We did not obtain it more than once in Kan-su. It is extremely common 

 in the Ussuri country. On the coasts of the Japanese Sea I observed the species migrating in the early part 

 of October." In Eastern Siberia it was procured by Taczanowski; and Pere David obtained it in Central China, 

 but not at Pekin, as stated by Swinhoe in the " Birds of China " (P. Z. S. 1871, p. 354). 



Habits.— I found this species frequenting the tangled and almost impenetrable grass in the above-mentioned 

 marsh ; it lurked in the thickest parts near the ground, and did not take flight until almost trodden on, when 



