304 Mr. R. Swinhoe on Formosan Ornithologij. 
specimens differ a good deal in size and markings, in length of 
wings, in length and bulk of bill, and in height of tarse. One 
of them also has the crown a uniform deep brown. I therefore 
cannot help agreeing with Mr. Blyth in considering all the allied 
forms of Eastern Asia simply as local varieties of C. schcenicola 
of Southern Europe. 
This is the prevailing species on all the lower grassy hills, 
from the banks of the Tamsuy River right to the south. At 
Tamsuy it disputes the ground with the species that follows, and 
I do not think it is found much further north or on the east 
side. In China it is abundant in all suitable localities, from 
Canton to Peking; and it also occurs in Japan. 
The eggs of our bird vary from three to five, are thin and 
fragile, and of a pale clear greenish blue. 
66. Cisticola volitans, Swinhoe, Journal of N. C. B. of 
Asiatic Society at Shanghai, 1858. 
Crown and under-parts pale straw-colour, rufescent on the 
axillaries and tibise. Back and wing-coverts deep brown, mar¬ 
gined with brownish grey. Wings hair-brown, margined deeply 
with yellowish brown. Rump yellowish brown. Tail blackish 
brown, margined and broadly tipped with pale yellowish brown. 
Under side of inner quills pale rust-colour. 
Length 3^ in.; wing 1^; tail 1^. Bill ochreous brown, 
darker on gonys than above. Iris ochreous straw-colour. Skin 
round eye yellowish brown. Inside of mouth black, marked 
with ochre-yellow. Rictus light greenish ochre; ear the same. 
Legs dark ochre, with light claws. This diminutive species 
with whitish head and short tail, apparently peculiar to Formosa, 
abounds on all the grassy hills in the north-west about Tamsuy, in 
the north about Kelung, and in the north-east about Sawo. It 
seems to replace on the mountains the common species, C. cur - 
sitans, of the lower hills; and in the country about Tamsuy (the 
northernmost range of the latter), it is found frequently in com¬ 
pany with it. In habits it much resembles the common species, 
dropping, when pursued, into the thickest grass, about the roots 
of which it creeps, and whence it is hard to flush it. It fre¬ 
quently perches on the summit of grass-stalks, and is then at once 
