Sylvia (Locustella) ochotensis Middendorf, Sib. Reise (1853),
2, 185.
Locustella ochotensis Seebohm, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1881), 5,
113; Whitehead, Ibis (1899), 210 (migration); Sharpe, Hand-List
(1903), 4, 186; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 87.
Basilan (McGregor); Batan (McGregor); Bohol (McGregor); Calayan
(McGregor); Luzon (McGregor); Marinduque (Steere Exp.); Mindanao
(Goodfellow); Mindoro (Whitehead); Romblon (McGregor). Kurile
Islands, northeastern Siberia, Greater Sunda Islands, Kamtchatka,
Japan; Borneo in winter.
Adult.--Above russet-brown; feathers of head and back with darker
centers; lores and a line over eye to nape ashy; cheeks and ear-coverts
brown with a buff wash; jaws white; loral and malar feathers with
shafts extending beyond the webs, the produced portions black;
sides of the neck brown; under parts white; sides, flanks, thighs,
and crissum buffy brown; a faint buff wash across fore breast; wings
and tail similar to the back, the latter with obsolete, narrow bars
on upper surface; rectrices dark gray below, each with a dark bar just
anterior to the whitish tip. Upper mandible dusky, lower mandible light
flesh-color, dusky at tip; legs and nails pale flesh-color. Length,
about 165; male, wing, 74; tail, 60; culmen from base, 16; bill from
nostril, 9; tarsus, 24; middle toe with claw, 23. Female, wing, 65;
tail, 54; culmen from base, 15; bill from nostril, 9; tarsus, 22;
middle toe with claw, 21.
Young.--In young birds the sides of the head and the entire under
parts are strongly suffused with yellowish buff.