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Subfamily ACROCEPHALINM 



Genus HYPOLAIS. 



Motacilla apud Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. i. p. 330 (1766). 



Sylvia apud Bechstein, Orn. Taschenb. p. 173 (1802). 



Muscipeta apud Koch, Baier. Zool. i. p. 170 (1816). 



Hippolais apud C. L. Brehru, Isis, 1828, p. 1283. 



Curruca apud Ehrenberg, Symb. Phys. fol. bb (1829). 



Hypolais, Kaup, Natiirl. Syst. p. 96 (1829). 



Salicaria apud Strickland, in Gould's B. of Eur. part xx. (1837). 



Phyllopneuste apud Bonaparte, Comp. List, p. 13 (1838). 



Calamoherpe apud Bonaparte, ut supra (1838). 



Ficedula apud Keyserling & Blasius, Wirbelth. Eur. p. 56 (1840). 



Iduna apud Keyserling & Blasius, ut supra, (1840). 



Calamodyta apud G. R. Gray, Gen. of B. i. p. 172 (1849). 



Chloropeta apud Bonaparte, Cat. Parzud. p. 6 (1856). 



Jerdonia apud Hume, Ibis, 1870, p. 182. 



The genus Hypolais includes a few Old- World Warblers which can easily be grouped together 

 in the same genus, though on the one side they almost merge in the true Phylloscopi and on 

 the other in the Acrocephali. One characteristic of this genus is the fact that all the species 

 included in it build neat cup-shaped nests, and deposit eggs which differ widely from those of any 

 other Warbler, being pale salmon-coloured or pinky grey spotted with purplish black. 



The range of the present genus extends over the Palsearctic Region and the northern 

 portions of the Ethiopian and Oriental Regions. These birds are extremely fine songsters ; and 

 several species are said to mimic the songs of other birds with great fidelity. They are chiefly, 

 if not exclusively, insectivorous. 



Hypolais icterina, which is generally accepted as being the type of this genus, has a stout 

 bill, very wide at the base, somewhat compressed towards the tip ; wings somewhat pointed, the 

 third quill longest, the first very short ; tarsi rather short, the feet small ; tail moderately long ; 

 tarsus covered anteriorly with four plates and three inferior scutellae. 



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