1847.] New or Little Known Species of Birds. t.~)7 



upper-parts, and of the flanks : the tail above, and wings externally, 

 are uniform rufous or light ferruginous. Inhabits Arracan. 



To Cisticola we can only refer 



C. cursitanSy (Franklin.) India generally, including Lower Bengal, 

 though chiefly above the tideway of the river. A second species is com- 

 mon in parts of the south of Europe, the C.sckcenicola, Bonap. ; and a thifd 

 occurs in Australia, recently described (and since figured) by Mr. Gould 

 as C. campestris, P. Z. S. 1835, p. 20.* These little birds frequent 

 sedges and long grass in the open country, also growing corn and other 

 low crops ; and the Indian species may be commonly observed to rise a 

 little way into the air, as is the habit of so many birds that inhabit 

 similar situations, repeating at quick intervals a single note— -jik, jik. 

 Like its European affine, it is also remarkable for the beautiful construc- 

 tion of its nest, sewing together a number of growing stems and leaves 

 of grass, with a delicate pappus which forms also the lining, and laying 

 four or five translucent white eggs, with reddish-brown spots, more 

 numerous and forming a ring at the large end, very like those of 

 Orthotomus longicauda. It abounds in suitable districts throughout 

 the country. 



Drymoica, Sw. The types of this division, as cited by Mr. Swainson, 

 are — 1, the European Cisticola schosnicola, — and 2, le Capocier of Le- 

 vaillant, or Sylvia macronra, Lath., of South Africa, considered identi- 

 cal with the species figured in Denon's Egypt. Other African species 

 have been figured and described by Ruppell and by Dr. A. Smith : 

 but no restricted Prinia appears to have been yet met with on the 

 African continent. To the same immediate group as Dr. macroura, 

 (Lath.) Sw., must also be referred several Indian species, some 

 of which are very closely allied together, and difficult to describe- 

 apart. The bill is shorter, less slender, wider and deeper at base, with 

 more developed stiff rictal bristles, than in the true Primes ; and, if 

 black, is only of this colour during the breeding season, as in Sphenara 

 and Megalurvs. The plumage is commonly plain deep brown, darker 



* Add, also, several of Dr. A. Smith's Drymoica of South Africa, as LevaiUantii, 

 terrestris, cherinu, subruficapitla, apparently also the large natalensis, and perhaps chini- 

 ana. His Dr. textrix, or the Pincpinc of Levaillant, constitutes Mr. Swainson's fur- 

 ther subdivision Hemipteryx* Gould also figures and describes a C. magna from 

 Australia. 



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