240 
Annals of the Transvaal Museum 
Specimens in the Transvaal Museum collection : — 
No. 
Locality. 
Date. 
Sex. 
Wing. 
Tail. 
Tars. 
Culm. 
813 
Knysna 
5/9/99 
s 
60 
57 
21 
11 
816 
55 
5/9/99 
$ 
60 
65 
19*5 
11 
819 
5? 
% 
3 
61 
65 
21 
10 -5 
1055 
?y 
10 /2 /99 
S (juv.) 
51 
47 
16 
9 
814 
j? 
7/9/99 
F 
52 
53 
19 
9 
817 
» 
7 /9 /99 
$ 
54 
50? 
20 
10 
1052 
,, ...... . • 
7/10/98 
9 
52 
53 
19 
10 
1053 
55 
7/9/99 
9 
54 
53 
19 
10 
1054 
5? 
2/8/99 
9 
50 -5 
52 
18 -5 
10 
1056 
5? 
2 
% (juv.) 
51 
48 
19 -5 
10 
Note. — T he two juvenile speci: 
mens are o: 
nly faintly 
streaked 
on the 
breast. 
No. 819 
is less clearly streaked on the breast, and has the three middle secondaries pure white ; 
there is besides an admixture of white on the feathers of the rump. All these specimens 
are distinctly freckled with dark brown from the cheeks to the ear-coverts, and as this is 
noted in neither Smith’s nor Sharpe’s description, the Knysna birds may perhaps have to 
be separated from those in the western districts of Cape Colony. The collection is not 
large enough to judge of the changes of plumage, all of the adults having been collected 
before the breeding season ; but no doubt the summer plumage is lighter coloured. 
2. Cisticola lais, Finsch and Hartlaub.* 
Sharpe has given a full description of the type of the species in his 
“ Birds of South Africa,” p. 271, from which the following is copied : — 
“ Above fulvous brown, very broadly streaked with black, the margins 
to the feathers rather rufescent ; head and hinder neck more rufous than 
the back, the blackish stripes much less distinct and indeed almost obsolete 
on the nape and hinder neck ; rump uniform fulvous brown, the upper 
tail-coverts also with very faint mesial streaks of blackish ; wing-coverts 
ashy-fulvous with dark brown centres, the greatest series more shaded 
with rufous externally ; quills dark brown, broadly edged with rufous 
externally so as to give a rufous aspect to the wings ; the margins of the 
secondaries paler and more fulvescent ; tail rufous brown, lighter rufous 
on the margins ; the two centre feathers without any subterminal black 
mark and irregularly rayed across with dusky bars under certain lights, 
all the other feathers with a broad black subterminal bar, the tips being 
fulvescent, this pale ending being more distinct on the outer plumes and 
forming a margin to the last rectrix ; lores and feathers round the eye 
yellowish buff, forming a tolerably distinct eyebrow ; sides of face also 
fulvous, the ear-coverts rather browner with obsolete dusky tips to the 
feathers ; cheeks fulvous ; chin and centre of body white, the throat and 
sides of the body tawny fulvous, clearer on the thighs, the flanks slightly 
shaded with brown ; under wing-coverts and tail-coverts tawny buff ; 
bill brown, yellowish at the base of the under mandible ; legs yellowish. 
Length 127, wing 54, tail 59, tarsus 18 -5.” This specimen is said to be 
a § in the original description, but the sex is not indicated by Sharpe ; 
it was collected by Thos. Ayres in Natal. 
The series of skins in the Transvaal Museum collection shows that in 
winter the under surface of the body is almost entirely tawny fulvous y 
* V. d. Decken’s Reisen, IV, p. 237 (1870). 
