399. Sylvia jerdoni.
The Eastern Orphean Warbler.
Curruca jerdoni, Blyth, J. A. S. B. xvi, p. 439 (1847). Sylvia jerdoni (Blyth), Blyth, Cat. p. 187; Hume, Cat. no. 581; Seebohm, Cat. B. M. v, p. 16; Barnes, Birds Bom. p. 232. Sylvia orphea (Temm.), Jerd. B. I. ii, p. 208; Butler & Hume, S. F. iii, p. 487.
The Large Black-capped Warbler *, Jerd.; Pedda nulla kampa-jitta, Tel.
Coloration. Male. Forehead, crown, nape, lores, and sides of the head black ; upper plumage slaty grey; wings brown, edged with slaty grey; tail black, the outermost feathers with the outer web white and the inner with the terminal third white ; the next two pairs white at the tip of the inner web; cheeks and lower plumage white, tinged with very pale buff, especially on the sides of the body ; under tail-coverts slaty grey, broadly tipped with white.
Female. Crown, forehead, and nape brown, and the ear-coverts blackish ; otherwise lite the male.
Legs and feet slaty-grey; bill blackish brown, slaty at base of lower mandible ; iris pale straw or dirty white (Butler).
Length about 7; tail 2.9; wing 3.2; tarsus .9; bill from gape .85. The first primary is about -75 in Length, and the second is between the fifth and sixth.
This bird differs from its European representative, S. orphea, in having a much larger bill and paler lower plumage.
Distribution. A winter visitor to a great portion of India, from September to April. It inHabits the whole peninsula as far as Trichinopoly on the south and Manbhoom in Chutia Nagpnr on the east. It appears to be confined to the plains in winter. It passes through Gilgit in the spring and autumn migrations, and breeds in Turkestan.
* As this bird is not the Eastern representative of the Blackcap or Black- capped Warbler of Europe, Jerdon's name seems to me inappropriate and misleading.
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