14 SWEDISH BLUE-THROATED WARBLER. 



disappearing among- the low cover, but soon coming 

 fortli when all is still, yet without absolutely quitting 

 the shelter of the herbage by going more than a few 

 paces from it. In Lower Bengal these birds are ex- 

 tremely common in suitable situations." 



Mr. Jerdon remarks, "In the Dukhun this is far from 

 being common, and is only found during the cold season 

 — from October to March. It frequents thick hedges, 

 gardens, sugar-cane fields, and long grass or weeds in 

 beds of tanks, etc., occasionally coming close to houses. 

 It feeds on the ground, on which it runs along, picking 

 up various insects, and does not return so quickly to 

 its perch, neither has it that peculiar quivering of the 

 tail, as the Indian Redstart, though while feeding on 

 the ground it occasionally jerks it up. It generally 

 tries to conceal itself among the bushes it frequents 

 when observed." 



The male in breeding plumage has the upper parts 

 and wings greyish brown; rump reddish; throat, from 

 base of lower mandible to crop, bright blue, with a 

 rusty red mark, or, as Temminck calls it, "mirror" in 

 the centre; the lowest blue feathers are edged with 

 grey, and immediately below there is a broad black 

 band, succeeded by one of a bright russet; abdomen 

 and flanks are of a dirty white, with dusky and irreg- 

 ular reddish markings; under tail coverts yellowish red; 

 tail dark brown, the basal half of each feather, except 

 the two middle ones, bright russet red; beak black; 

 iris and legs brown. 



The female dijffers from the male in having the throat 

 whitish, margined only with blue; the colours across 

 the chest quite distinct; the abdomen is more uniformly 

 yellowish white. 



In the young, before the first moult, the plumage is 



