534 
OISTICOLA CUESITANS. 
length of the respective tail-feathers is furthermore not to be depended upon, at all. Mr. Hume notices the 
conspicuous difference in the cold- and hot-weather plumage of this species in India, the head being striated in 
the former, and unifom in the latter; but this does not apjiear to be the case in Ceylon, where there is but little 
change in the seasons. Specimens from Madras, Hepal, and the North-west Himalayas have the lateral tail- 
feathers variable in length, and nearly all have the head paler than in Ceylonese birds ; but the back in some is as 
dark as in our up-couutiy birds, while in others, notably in one or two from Nepal, it is very pale. The wiiig^ vary 
from I'S) to 2-2 inches in the males, and the tails from 1-65 to 1-8 inch. A Nicobar example in the national 
collection, which is, judging from its size, a female, has the wing 1'7 ; the upper surface is somewhat dark, and 
the edgings of the feathers rather rufescent. 
TheM’^est- and South- African representatives of Gisticola cursitans do not admit of separation from ours. I append the 
following among the results arrived at on comparison of a large number of specimens. A West- African example, a 
presumed female, from the Eiver Volta, has the wing 1'85 inch, tail 1'55, bill to gape 0’5, and is the exact counter- 
part, as regards plumage, with one of my Galle birds ; another, a male from Potchefstroom, measures 2‘03 in the 
wing and 1-8 in the tail, and has the colour of the upper surface pale, like a Hambantota specimen, from which it 
cannot be separated. Captain Shelley records the wing of Egyptian specimens as 1-9 inch, and Mr. Gurney 
that of Sicilian examples as 1-86 to 2-0. Turning south-eastwards from India we find that examples of the 
Gisticola from the Malayan archipelago are scarcely separable from ours. A male specimen from Macassar has the 
wing 1’9, and the edgings of the back-feathers slightly more rufous than most Ceylon birds, but the rump not 
more so than in some ; in the length of the tail, which measures i'9 inch, it differs from the generality of 
G. cursitans from the continents of Asia, Europe, aud Africa ; but it is not so sufficiently removed from them to 
be treated as a distinct species. An example from Elores (G. fuscicapilla, Wallace) has the head uniform brown, 
but not more so than some of my old male specimens in summer plumage. The wing measures 2-0 and the tail 
I'C, and I do not think it can be separated from G. cursitans. 
My space does not permit me to instance further examples ; but the evidence here adduced is sufficient to show that 
specimens throughout the vast range of the species maybe found to correspond with others from Ceylon, although 
races, as a whole, from particular localities may present special characters. I also find that individuals from all 
parts vary inter se in the proportion of the tail-feathers to one another. 
Distribution , — This curious little denizen of the grass frequents the whole island of Ceylon from Pt. Pedro 
to Doudra Head and up to the elevation of Horton Plains. It is, of course, only found in grassy localities, 
which are alone suited to its habits. It is equally abundant in these spots all over the low country, and is 
of ‘ Stray Feathers ’ which I have received I find an account of its (presumed) rediscovery by Mr. Bourdillon on 
the 18th of April last year. Mr. Hume gives a mijiute description of the specimen ; and it appears from it that 
the 3rd, 4th, and 5th quills are almost equal, and the 1st 0-9 shorter than the 4th ; the tail of ten feathers, soft, 
very broad, aud much rounded. Length 5-75 inches ; wing 2-5 ; tail 2-5. The plumage is rich rufescent olive- 
brown, darker on the crown and tail, which latter is obsolctely rayed ; the feathers of the upper surface lax, lower 
surface brownish olivaceous, with the centre of the abdomen fulvous-white. This bird may or may not be identical 
with Jerdon’s species ; it appears, except as regards the length of the tail, to correspond pretty well with the 
Museum example. Jerdou places his specimen at the end of the TimaUinse ; and I consider the Ceylonese bird to 
belong to what I have separated as the Hiymoeeine section of the Tiinaliidie, to the members of which its bill, tail, 
wdngs, and feet ally it. I accordingly place it here ; but as I am uncertain as to whether my identification of it 
as the Sehmnicola platyura of Jerdon is correct, I shall assign it a place in this work as a doubtful species. 
I'he type of Jerdon’s bird having been lost, and no other apparently similar specimen having been subsequently 
procured or noticed prior to the capture of the Travancore bird and my discovery of the Ceylonese skin in the 
British Museum, it will be a very difficult matter to determine what Schoenicola platyiira of Jerdon really is. 
Distribution. — The scanty information on the label of this bird affords me no clue as to where Mr. Cuming procured 
it ill Ceylon. It would seem reasonable to suppose that it occurred in the island as a straggler from the coast of India, 
otherwise subsequent collectors would surely have met with it. There is, perhaps, no spot more favourable to its habits 
than the great swamp lying between the Negombo Canal and the highroad to that place from Colombo ; in this vast 
morass I met with one species of similar disposition, which has never before been seen in Ceylon, and I would therefore 
indicate it as a not unlikely locality for the rediscovery of this rara avis. 
Jerdon’s remarks on his meeting with Schcenieola platyura are : — “ I only once observed this curious bird among 
