THE SILKY REED-WARBLER. 
101 
Genus TRIBURA, Hodgs, 
103. TRIBURA INTERMEDIA. 
THE SILKY REED-WARBLER. 
Dumeticola intermedia, Oates, S. F. ix. p. 220, Tribura intermedia, Brooks, 
S. F. ix. p. 445. Tribura taczanowskia (Sivinh.), apud Oates, S. F. x, 
p. 218. 
Description. — Male and female. The whole upper plumage russet-brown_, 
the wings plain brown^ the outer webs edged with russet-brown; tail 
russet-brown, the shafts viewed from below being white and the tips of all 
the feathers paler ; an indistinct narrow supercilium whitish ; lores tinged 
with brown; ear- coverts hair -brown, with the shafts paler; cheeks white, 
the feathers generally tipped with brown; whole lower plumage white, 
tinged with buff, especially on the breast, flanks and under tail-coverts, the 
feathers of which are broadly tipped with white ; axillaries and under wing- 
coverts pale buffy white. 
The young are strongly suffused on the lower plumage and cheeks with 
deep yellowish buff, and the feathers of the throat are generally tipped with 
dusky brown. 
Length 5*5 inches, tail 2*4, wing 2*2^ tarsus '8, bill from gape '65 : the 
second primary is equal to the eighth or ninth ; the first primary is very 
small, measuring only '5 inch in length. 
Both prior and subsequently to describing this species^ I arrived at the 
conclusion that it was identical with Locustella taczanowskia, Swinhoe 
(P. Z. S. I87I, p. 355). On reconsidering the question, I am now of 
opinion that the two may be distinct ; and I therefore keep them 
separate for the present. L. taczanowskia is represented by a sole spe- 
cimen, a young bird, in the Seebohm museum. I brought to England 
some six specimens of young T. intermedia, and not one of them is a 
perfect match for Swinhoe^s bird. His example was procured in the 
Trans -Baikal region; mine in Burmah. I think therefore that when 
adult birds of L. taczanowskia are procured, they may prove distinct from 
the adults of T. intermedia. 
The present species has a close ally in T. luteiventris of India ; but this 
latter differs, not only in the coloration of the lower plumage, but 
structurally. The exposed part of the first primary is half the length of 
the second ; whereas in T. intermedia the exposed part of the first primary 
is only a third of the length of the second. In other words, the tip of 
the second primary is much nearer the tip of the wing in one bird than in 
the other, 
