ACEOCEPHALUS STENTOEIUS. 
(THE CLAMOROUS REED-WARBLER.) 
Curmca stentorea, Hemp. & Ehr. Symb. Physicse, Aves, fol. hh (1828) ; Blanford, Ibis, 
1874, p. 79. 
Agfohates hrunnescens, Jerdon, Madr. Journ. 1839, x. p. 269. 
Acrocephalm hrunnescens (Jerd.), Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 181 (1849); Horsf. & 
Moore, Cat. B. Mus. E. I. Co. i. p. 331 (1854); Jerdon, B. of Ind. ii. p. 154 (1863); 
Hume, Lahore to Yarkand, p. 214, pi. 16 (1873); Legge, Str. Feath. 1873, p. 488 
(first record from Ceylon). 
Calamolierpe hrumiescens (Jerd.), Blyth, J. A. S. B. 1846, xv. p. 288. 
Calamodyta hrunnescens (Jerd.), Hume, Str. Feath. 1873, p. 190; Adam, t.c. p. 381; 
Legge, ibid. 1875, p. 369. 
Acrocephalus stentorius (H. & E.), Allen, Ibis, 1864, p. 97, pi. 1 ; Shelley, Ibis, 1871, p. 133 , 
id. B. of Egypt, p. 95 (1872). 
Calamodyta stentoria (H. <& E.), Hume, Nests and Eggs, ii. p. 326 (1874). 
Calamodyta meridionalis, Legge, Str. Feath. 1875, p. 369. 
The Clamorous Sedge -Warhler, Shelley ; The Greater Indian Reed-Warbler. Rora-jitta, 
Telugu. 
Adult nude. Length 7-5 to 7-8 inches ; wing 3-3 to 3-4 ; tail 3-2 ; tarsus 1-05 to 1-1 ; middle toe and claw 0-9 to 1-0 ; 
bill to gape 1-05. 
Adult female. Length 7-5 inches ; wing 3-1 ; tarsus 1-0 ; middle toe and claw 0-85 to 0-95 ; bill as long as m 
the male. 
Iris brownish yellow ; bill, upper inaudible dark brown, lower fleshy at base, with dusky tip ; gape and inside of mouth 
red ; legs plumbeous grey or greeni.sh plumbeous; feet olivaceous, claws brownish. 
Above shining olivaceous brown, in some specimens slightly darker on the forehead ; wings and tail brown, margined 
with the hue of the back ; from the nostril over the eye a pale streak, beneath this the lores are dark brown ; 
orbital fringe fulvous-grey, dark at its posterior corner ; chin and throat white, with a fulvous-grey wash over the 
chest and flanks, darkening on the lower parts above the thighs and paling again to white on the centre of the breast 
and abdomen ; under taU-coverts whitish ; under w'ing and its edge fulvous ; between the flanks and abdomen the 
grey hue is tinged with tawny. In non-breeding plumage the underparts are more fulvous than after the 
spring moult. 
During the breeding-season, in July and August, the plumage becomes much abraded, causing the feathers of the 
upper surface to have pale edgings, and exposing on the fore neck the dark portions of the shafts of the feathers, 
which are quite concealed in a newly-plumaged bird, the effect of this being to produce a number of pa e 
brown stria 3 . I observe the same feature in examples sent me by Mr. Hume from North India. 
Ohs. I was under the impression, when writing of this species in 1875, that it merited separation r^ e n an 
form, on account of the presence of striai on the chest, and the absence, in some specimens rom ey on, ° ® 
rusty hue on the upper surface, which is a character of the latter species. Mr. Hume, however, ® ^ 
these characters were seasonal ; and I have since examined Cashmere specimens shot in u y wi ese roa 
marks and find they show on the surface merely, on account of abrasion, the dark sha t-stnpe, as a ove rein^ e , 
existing more or less always, but being concealed by the tips of the feathers in bir s in P 
Lamples from the locality in question have very large bills, varying from 1-1 to 1-2 inch m length from the gape; 
but one from Calcutta, perhaps bred in the lowlands, is the counterpart of my Ceylonese birds, both as regards 
plumage and length of bill (I’Oo inch). 
