'202 EGGS OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



ingly local in Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. On the Continent the 

 geographical distribution of the Garden Warbler extends through- 

 out Western Europe, and, like that of some other migrants, 

 becomes more and more restricted, both to the north and to the 

 south, as it progresses eastwards. In Norway the bird ranges as 

 far north as lat. 70°, in Finland and North-west Russia to lat. 65°, 

 and in the Ural Mountains to lat. 59°. 



The nest is a simple net-like structure, made of the withered 

 stems of grasses and a few small roots ; sometimes a few cobwebs 

 and a little moss cement the stalks together, and it is lined with 

 a small quantity of horse-hair. The surrounding branches are 

 artfully interwoven with the sides of the nest, which, frail as it is, 

 is well and skilfully put together. 



The eggs are four or five in number, in some cases as many as 

 six. They very closely resemble those of the Blackcap, and vary 

 in ground-colour from pale huffish-white to greenish-white. In 

 some eggs the markings are distributed in large blotches of green- 

 ish-brown, varying in richness of colour, and intermingled with 

 smaller and paler underlying spots, with sometimes a few short 

 irregular streaks of dark brown ; in others the underlying spots are 

 the predominant ones — large irregular pale violet-grey blotches, 

 sparingly dashed and marbled with brown surface-spots, some of 

 which are very dark in colour ; others, again, have the markings 

 chiefly round the large end of the egg — very rich brown spots and 

 irregular streaks intermingled with grey underlying spots. I have 

 never met with the rufous type which occasionally occurs in eggs 

 of the Blackcap and other Warblers as well as the Shrikes, etc. 

 The eggs vary in length from 0"85 to 0'7 inch, and in breadth 

 from 063 to 055 inch. 



THE WHITETHROAT. 



(Sylvia cinerea.)* 

 Plate 52, Fig. 16. 

 The Common Whitethroat is, as its name implies, one of the 

 best-known of the Warblers. It breeds throughout Europe, in 

 Scandinavia and West Russia, as far north as lat. 65°, and in the 

 Ural Mountains as far as lat. 60°. Eastwards it is found in Asia 

 Minor, Palestine, Persia, Turkestan and South-west Siberia. 



* Sylvia sylvia — Sharpe, Handb., I., p. 182. 



