Mr. W. T. Blanford on Indian and Persian Birds. 77 
nized; and the abdomen and flanks are nearly white or only 
pale huff. But all these characters are variable in D. inquieta, 
and Mr. Hume describes a specimen from Sind without striae 
on the chin and throat ( f Stray Feathers/ i. p. 201). 
3. The eastern race of the Orphean Warbler, Sylvia jerdoni, 
Blyth (1847), is identical with S. orphea, var. helena, Hempr. 
& Ehr. (1828); and I am inclined to suspect that the type of 
S. crassirostris, Rupp. (1826), is merely an individual variety, 
in which case RiippelFs name would have priority. The bird 
in the Frankfort museum, however, has a decidedly thicker 
bill. The eastern race is rather larger than S. orpliea from 
Western Europe, and has a longer bill, the two races passing 
into each other and breeding together where they meet in 
the Levant, as such closely allied forms generally do. 
4. Sylvia rubescens, sp. nov. 
Inter S. currucam et S. melanocephalam fere media, ab ilia 
capite nigrescente, dorso saturatiore, tarsisque valde pal- 
lidioribus, ab hac coloribus omnino dilutioribus, pectore 
rubescenti-albo, hand cinereo, distinguenda. 
Hab. in Persia, circum Shiraz et Isfahan. 
Male in summer plumage. Head above, with the lores and 
feathers just below the eye, nearly black; ear-coverts dark 
ashy; mantle dark ashy, with a slight brownish tinge; quills 
brown; tail blackish brown; outer pair of rectrices white, ex¬ 
cept the basal portion of the inner web; the next two pairs 
tipped white, the white diminishing inwards; but in a newly 
moulted specimen there is a narrow white tip on the fourth 
pair of rectrices (counting from the side). Lower parts white, 
with a well-marked pink tinge, especially on the breast. The 
white of the throat well defined at the edge, and not passing 
into the dusky cheeks. Bill dusky above, pale beneath; legs 
brown. Wing 2*38 to 2*45 inches; tail 2T5 to 23; tarsus 
0-78 to 08; culmen 0*49 to 0*53 (bill at front about 0*45). 
First quill scarcely longer than the greater wing-coverts, 1*8 
inch shorter than the third, which is the longest, second quill 
OT inch shorter than the third and equal to the sixth. 
A specimen from Southern Persia, apparently in winter- 
plumage (the label has been lost), resembles S. curruca more 
