FRANKLIN^S GRASS-WARBLER. 
119 
116. CISTICOLA GRACILIS. 
FRANKLIN^S GRASS-WARBLER. 
Prinia gracilis, Fmnkl. P. Z. S. 1831, p. 119 ; Jei^d. B. Ind. ii. p. 172 ) Hume, Nests 
and Eggs, p. 341; Wald. in Bl. B. Burm. p. 119; Hume, S. F. iii. p. 136; 
Anders. Yunnan Exped. p. 641 ; Hume, S. F. viii. p. 101 ; Brooks, S. F. viii. 
p. 476. Prinia hodgsoni, Bl. J. A. S. B. xiii. p. 376 ; Jerd. B. Ind. ii. p. 173 ; 
Hume, Nests and Eggs, p. 342 ; Wald. in Bl. B. Burm. p. 119 ; Hmne, S. F. iii. 
p. 136 ; Legge, S. F. iii. p. 203 ; Anders. Yunnan Exped. p. 641 ; Hume 8r Dav. 
S. F. vi. p. 348 ; Oates, S. F. vii. p. 48 ; Legge, Birds Ceylon, p. 523 ; Hume, 
S. F. viii. p. 101. Prinia albogularis, TVald. Ann. Nat. Hist. ser. 4, v. p. 219 ; 
id. Ibis, 1871, p. 112. Drymoeca gracilis, Dresser, Birds Europe, iii, p. 13, pi. 
Prinia rufula, Godwin-Austen, P. Z. 8. 1874, p. 47 ; id. J. A. S. B. xliii. pt. ii. 
p. 165, pi. ix. fig. 1 ; Hume, S. F. iii. p. 397, viii. p. 101. Cisticola gracilis, 
Sharpe, Cat. Birds B. Mus. vii. p. 
Description. — Male and female. Summer plumage. Upper plumage^ wings 
and tail ashy grey, the wings edged with pale rufous, the tail with a sub- 
terminal patch of brown on each feather and tipped with whitish ; ear- 
coverts whitish in front, greyish behind ; cheeks, chin, throat, abdomen, 
vent and under tail-coverts white ; breast ashy ; under wing- coverts and 
axillaries white. 
Winter plumage. Upper plumage and tail rufous -brown ; the wings 
brown, broadly edged with rufous ; the tail with subterminal dark patches 
and white tips ; under plumage white, tinged with fulvous ; a whitish line 
over the lores reaching to the eye. 
Iris hazel-red; edges of eyelids orange; legs yellowish orange; claws 
horn-colour ; bill dark brownish black ; mouth black. After the breeding- 
season the mouth becomes flesh-colour and the edges of the eyelids change 
to plumbeous. 
Length 4' 2 inches, tail 1*8, wing 1*8, tarsus '7, bill from gape '55 ; in 
winter the tail is longer, measuring about 2*1 inches, and the total length 
of the bird is correspondingly increased. 
This species has long been known under the two names of C. gracilis 
and C. hodgsoni. We are indebted to Mr. Brooks for the discovery that 
the former name refers to the bird in winter plumage, and the latter to it 
in the summer plumage. I have examined three specimens of P. rufula in 
Capt. Wardlaw Ramsay^s collection ; they appear to me to be the present 
species in rufous plumage, probably young birds, as one of them, the only 
one dated, was shot in July. The young of this and allied species assume 
the winter plumage as their first dress. 
Franklin^s Grass-Warbler occurs throughout Pegu and Arrakan. Mr. 
Davison met with in Tenasserim only on the Salween river; and Capt. 
Wardlaw Ramsay got it in Karennee. 
It extends through the Indo-Burmese countries, and is found all over 
the peninsula of India and in the island of Ceylon. 
