96 
BIRDS OF BRITISH BURMAH. 
lower one fleshy yellow ; mouth orange-yellow ; legs and claws pinkish 
brown. 
Length 5*3 inches^ tail 2*4^ wing 2'2, tarsus '9; bill from gape *7 : 
first primary '45 ; the second primary is intermediate between the eighth 
and ninth, and occasionally equals the eighth. The female is rather 
smaller than the male. 
Jerdon^s Reed- Warbler is very abundant in the grassy plains and paddy- 
fields of Pegu from Kyeikpadein up to Tonghoo, and probably in other 
parts of the Division. Mr. Davison met with it once in Tenasserim at 
Kedei-Keglay. 
It is spread over the peninsula o£ India in the cold weather, extending 
westwards to Eastern Europe. It breeds in the Himalayas. It will 
probably be found in the Indo-Burmese countries and China. 
This small Reed- Warbler is, so far as I know, only a winter visitor to 
Burmah. On its arrival it betakes itself to the growing paddy, and is with 
difl&culty observed and dislodged from its shelter, as it keeps to the roots 
of the thickest paddy in wet fields. When the rice is cut it retreats to 
elephant-grass. 
Mr. Brooks found the nest in Cashmeer — a cup, very loosely and care- 
lessly put together, made of fine grass and wool. I am under the 
impression that some birds of this species or the next remain in Burmah 
to breed, as in August I once found a nest which could hardly belong to 
any bird but an Acrocephalus ; and I have moreover frequently heard the 
note of a Reed- Warbler in the rains, but in such places, so inundated and 
so covered with tall grass, that it was impossible to get at the bird. This 
was in the plains adjoining the Pegu Canal. 
99. ACROCEPHALUS DUMETORUM. 
BLYTH'S REED-WARBLER. 
Acrocephalus dumetorum, Bl. J. A. S. B. xviii. p. 815 ; Jerd, B. Ind. ii. p. 155 ; 
Adam, S. F. i. p. 381 ; Bl. B. Burm. p. 104 ; Anders. 8. F. iii. p. 351 ; Dresser, 
Birds Eur. ii. p. 561 ; Cripps, S. F. vii. p. 283 ; Anders. Yunnan Exped. p. 622 ; 
Legge, Birds Ceylon, p. 545 ; Hume, S. F. viii. p. 100 ; Seehohm, Cat. Birds B. 
Mus. V. p. 104 ; Oates, S. F. x. p. 214. Calamodyta dumetorum, Hume, 
Nests and Eggs, p. 327. 
Description. — Male and female. Upper plumage olive-brown, tinged 
with fulvous, not with russet ; wings and tail brown, edged on the outer 
webs with olive-brown; lores dusky; over the lores an indistinct pale 
streak reaching to the eye ; ear-coverts and sides of neck like the back ; 
lower plumage pale buff", paler on the chin, throat and abdomen. In 
summer the buflF on the lower parts becomes extremely pale. 
