PASSERES. 
Earn. SYLVIID^. 
Bill moderately slender and straight ; the culmen acute ; the tip notched ; rictal bristles 
short. Wings pointed ; the 1st quill much reduced. Tail of 12 feathers, shorter than or not 
exceeding the wing. Tarsus scaled, longer than the middle toe. 
Of small size, with a double moult, and of unspotted young plumage. 
Genus SYLVIA. 
Bill small, rather straight ; the culmen gently curved from the base. Nostrils oval ; gape 
beset with small bristles. Wings long ; the 3rd, 4th, and 6th quills equal and longest, the 1st 
not much exceeding the primary-coverts. Tail rounded at the tip. Tarsus rather short, shielded 
in front with well-developed scales ; toes stout and strongly scaled. 
SYLVIA AFFINIS. 
(THE LAEGER INDIAN WHITETHROAT.) 
Silvia affinis, Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. spec. C (1849) ; Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 
1853, xii. p. 267 ; Layard & Kelaart, Prodromus, Cat. p. 57 (1863) ; Jerdon, B. of Ind. 
ii. p. 209 (1863) ; Holdsworth, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 467. 
Sterparola curruca (Lath.), Hume, Nests and Eggs, ii. p. 373 (1874). 
Sylvia altJicea, Hume, Str. Feath. 1878, vol. vii. p. 60. 
The Allied Grey Warbler, Jerdon. ifella kumpa-jitta, Telugu. 
Adult male (Aripu, Dec. 1869). Length (from skin) 5-6 inches; wing 2-8 ; tail 2-8; tarsus OY ; middle toe 0-5, its 
claw (straight) 0-15; bill to gape 0-57. 
2nd quid intermediate in length between the 6th and 7th. 
“ Irides pale yellow ; bill, base slate, tip dusky ; feet dark leaden” (Holdsworth), 
Crown and nape dull bluish ashy, changing into the subdued earthy brown of the hind neck, back, and scapulars ; the 
upper tail-coverts more ashy than the back ; lesser wing-coverts ashy at the margins of the feathers, the centres 
being concolorous with the back ; w’ings brown, the edges of the primaries and secondaries pale fulvous brownish 
the tertials more conspicuously margined than the outer secondaries ; tail darker brown than the wino-s, the 
margins of the feathers albescent, the outer web and terminal portion of the inner web of the outer feather and 
the tips of the two next dull white ; lores and ear-coverts dark brown, contrasting with the ashy hue above and 
below the oars on the side of the neck ; lower portion of orbital fringe w'hite ; chin and throat pure white ; chest 
and under surface whitish, faintly tinged with reddish ashy, mostly on the sides of the chest and the under tail- 
coverts ; flanks slightly shaded with greyish ; edge of the wing white ; under wing-coverts tinged with reddish 
ashy. 
Obs. The above is a description of an example procured by Mr. Holdsworth at Aripu, and the only one, I believe, 
now extant from Ceylon, unless Specimen C of Blyth’s Catalogue is still in a state of preservation in the Calcutta 
Museum. It appears to belong to the larger race lately distinguished by Mr. Hume as S. althcea ; it, however, 
has the head more ashy than I am led to suppose is the case in S. althcea ; and as I think Mr. Hume will require 
a larger series before he can safely found his new subspecies, I will keep the Ceylonese bird as S. affinis, the title 
