SYLVIA MYSTACEA. 



(MEnETRLES'S WARBLER.) 



Sylvia mystacea, Menetr. Cat. Rais. p. 34 (1832). 



Sylvia ntiescens, Blanford, Ibis, 1874, p. 77. 



Pyrophthalma mystacea (Menetr.), Severtzoff, Stray Feathers, 1875, p. 428. 



Sylvia momus, Dresser, B. of Eur. i. p. 407 (1880, partim). 



Sylvia mystacea, Seebohm, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. v. p. 20 (1881, partim). 



Bjeloussyj-Kusnetschik, Russian [fide Bogdanoff). 



Figurce notabiles. 

 Blanford, E. Persia, ii. pi. xii. ; Radde, Orn. Cauc. pi. xiii. fig. 1. 



$ ad. corpore suprk schistaceo-cinereo : pileo, capitis lateribus cum regione parotica sordide nigris : remigibus 

 nigricantibus, cinereo marginatis : rectricibus nigricantibus, cinereo anguste marginatis, rectrice extima 

 utrinque cum pogonio externo albo et albo teruiinato, secunda albo apicata. : mento et lineis duabus 

 longitudinalibus e rostro ad latera descendentibus albis : gula pectoreque castaneo-vinaceis : hypo- 

 chondriis pallide rufescentibus, corpore reliquo subtus rosaceo-albo : rostro fusco, mandibala ad basin 

 flavida: iride castanea, niarginibus palpebrarum fiavis : pedibus pallide fusco-isabellinis. 



$ ad. supra sordide fusco-cinerea : subtiis alba, ochraceo tincta : remigibus et tectricibus alarum fusco-cinereo 

 marginatis. 



Adult Male (Lenkoran, Mai'ch). Crown, sides of the head, and ear-coverts dull black, gradually merging 

 into the grey of the upper parts, which are slate-grey; quills blackish brown, margined externally with 

 clear slate-grey ; tail blackish, the feathers narrowly edged with grey, the outermost on each side with 

 the outer web and terminal portion white, the next tipped with white ; chin and a line bordering the 

 black on the sides of the head pure white ; throat and breast pale chestnut- vinous ; flanks pale reddish ; 

 rest of the underparts rosy white; beak brown, the basal half of the lower mandible yellowish: legs 

 pale brownish isabelline ; iris clear chestnut-red, the bare skin round the eye bright yellow. Total 

 length about 4'75 inches, culmen 0'48, wing 2"35, tail 2 - l, tarsus 0"75. 



Adult Female (fide Pleske). Entire upper parts plain brownish grey, the quills and wing-coverts similarly 

 margined ; underparts white, tinged with pale ochreous. 



Nestling (fide Pleske). Resembles the female, but the plumage is laxer and softer. 



The summer home of this Warbler appears to be the Transcaspian region, where it is extremely 

 numerous, but it is not as yet known where it winters. Its range, so far as we know, extends 

 from the Caucasus eastward through Transcaspia to Persia, Turkestan, and Northern Afghanistan, 

 but it does not seem to have occurred within the limits of British India. 



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