(833) Laticilla cinerascens.
Day's Long-tailed Grass-Warbler.
Eurycercus cinerascens Wald., A. M. N. H., (4) xiv, p. 156 (1874) (Dhubri). Laticilla cinerascens. Blanf. & Oates, i, p. 381.
Vernacular names. None recorded.
Description. Whole upper plumage ashy olive-grey, streaked with dark brown ; visible portions of the wings the same but unstreaked ; tail grey-brown, the centres darker; lores, a narrow ring round the eye, cheeks, chin and throat grey-white ; remainder of lower plumage pale grey, darker on the flanks and vent.
Colours of soft parts. " Iris sienna-brown; bill horny black, above dark, below bluish horny; tarsus brownish horny, plumbeous or slaty brown " (Stevens).
Measurements. Wing 51 to 52 mm.; tail (imperf.) 68 to 79 mm.; tarsus 21 mm ; culmen 10 and 11 mm.
Distribution. Assam.
Nidification. Mr. H.* Stevens took nests of this Warbler in the North Lakhimpur District of Assam. Deep cups very well and strongly made of grass, lined with flowering ends of the same and placed low clown in thick scrubby bushes growing in among the dense grass and ekra which covers the overflow land on either side of the Subansiri River. The nests contained four and three eggs respectively, very like those of the preceding bird, but with a more decided green tinge. They average about 17.0 x 14.0 mm. and hardly vary at all in size.
Habits. This bird is not shy but lives in such impenetrable grass and reed cover in swamps and on the sides of rivers that little is known about it. I found it in Gowhatty on The North side of the river, not uncommon in Tezpur and Dhubri and again in the Cachar and Sylhet Plains where the hill-streams debouched into the swamps.
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