waved with dusky cross-bars in certain lights, the centre tail-feathers
edged with ashy fulvous, the outer ones with deep huff, more broadly
on the external feathers; lores, eyebrows, feathers round the eye
and ear-coverts bright chestnut-red; cheeks and entire throat
white; across the chest a distinct collar of black; rest of under
surface buffy white inclining to dull tawny buff on the sides of the
body; thighs blackish; under tail-coverts dark brown, margined
with ashy fulvous ; on the sides of the body a few hair-like streaks
of dark brown, a little broader on the flanks; under wing-coverts
tawny buff; “ bill black, legs and toes flesh-coloured, iris ochry-
brown” {Andersson); iris reddish hazel (T. C. Atmore). Total
length 5 inches;-culmen, 0'5; wing, T9; tail, 3'05; tarsus, 0'85.
Adult Female.—Similar to the male. Total length, 5'5 inches;
culmen, 0-5; wing, 2-05; tail, 3'05; tarsus, 0‘85.
Fig. Smith, 111. Zool. S. Afr. Aves, pi. 75, fig. 1.
243. Drymceca affirts. Tawny-flanked Grass-Warbler.
Drymoica affinis et I), melanorhyncha, Layard, B. S. Afr. pp.
89, 92.
This species has a dark subterminal spot on the tail-feathers at all
ages, and is always perfectly uniform on the under surface; the
abdomen is whitish without any tinge of yellow, and the flanks are
fulvous brown. In the breeding plumage it has a black bill, which
has caused it to be confounded by some authors with D.
melanorhyncha of Western Africa, but this black bill is not a
specific character, as it is evidently gradually assumed. The young
birds, and probably those in winter plumage have the bill browner:
in winter the birds have distinct rufous edgings to the wing-coverts,
and are otherwise browner in appearance. Sir Andrew Smith says
that it “ inhabits dry flats in the interior of South Africa, and flits
to and fro, in search of insects, amongst the shrnbs with which they
are more or less coated.” We have not seen it from any locality
south of Natal, where Mr. Ayres found it in 1860, building among
stalks of high weeds. Mr. T. L. Ayres has forwarded several
specimens to Captain Shelley from the neighbourhood of Pinetown;
these were all in warm breeding plumage and were killed in
February and March. In the Transvaal, writes Mr. Thomas Ayres,
“ this species frequents weeds, high grass, and low bush, and is
generally distributed over the country.” We have examined
specimens in the British Museum, collected by the late Mr. Andersson
at Ovaquenyama, in May, 1867, and a young bird from Elephant
Yley, shot on the 8th August, 1859. There is also a specimen of a
Drymoeca in the British Museum collected by Livingstone at Tete
in the Zambesi district, which agrees with the description of Dr.
Peters’ Drymoeca bivittata. The latter we think must be a synonym
of D. affinis, to which species the above-mentioned Zambesi skin
certainly belongs.
Adult in breeding plumage.—Above ashy brown; inclining
rather to fulvous brown on the rump and upper tail-coverts; wings
brown, the coverts edged with ashy brown, the quills margined
with dull rufous; tail light ashy-brown, tipped with white, with a
distinct blackish subterminal bar on all but the two long centre tail-
feathers ; lores and a broad eyebrow dull yellowish white; feathers
in front of the eye and ear-coverts ashy-brown, the latter dull white
on the lower parts, like the cheeks; under surface of body pale
yellowish white, deepening into tawny buff on the sides of the body;
thighs and under wing-coverts tawny; sides of the npper breast
washed with greyish; bill black; legs flesh colour; iris brown.
Total length,4‘9 inches; culmen,0‘55; wing, T9; tail,2-4; tarsus,0'9.
Fig. Smith, 111. Zool. S. Afr. Aves, pi. 77, fig. 1.
244. D rymoeca maculosa. Cape Grass-Warbler.
Drymoica capensis, Layard, B. S. Afr. p. 92.
Like the foregoing bird this species has a subterminal spot on the
tail-feathers, but it always has a distinct wash of yellow on the under
parts and on the breast, and is streaked with black at all ages. It is
the common species of the Cape Colony, and Mr. Andersson writes
as follows :—“ I have reason to think that this, bird is common in
some of the southern parts of Great Namaqua Land; further south,
on the west coast and within the Cape Colony, I have frequently
met with i t ; and in the neighbourhood of Cape Town it is exceedingly
common, a pair or two inhabiting almost every garden.
“ It is found singly or in pairs; and its whereabouts is easily discovered
by the harsh querulous notes that it is in the habit of uttering
almost incessantly. It builds in low bushes; and the nest is composed
of moss, wool, and other soft material, which are artistically
and strongly put together. This species feeds on insects, searching
for them either on the ground or amongst the low bushes which
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