EGGS OF BRITISH BIRDS. 205 



deep, and though the sides are thick, the materials are so loosely 

 put together that when held up to the light it is possible to see 

 through them. 



Four or five is the usual number of eggs. In colour they much 

 resemble those of the Whitethroat. The ground-colour is white, 

 sometimes of a greenish and sometimes of a huffish shade. The 

 spots are darker and more numerous than those of typical eggs of 

 the Whitethroat, and are dark brown, largest and most numerous 

 towards the large end of the egg. The underlying spots are, of 

 course, paler, but in closely spotted eggs are not conspicuous. In 

 size the eggs vary from 0"7 to 0"65 inch in length by 0'53 to 05 

 in breadth. 



THE KUFOUS WARBLER. 



(Sylvia galactodes.)* 



Plate 53, Fig. 2. 



The Rufous Warbler can only be considered a very accidental 

 straggler to the British Islands. It has a very restricted geogra- 

 phical distribution, its breeding-range being confined to the basin 

 of the Mediterranean. 



Mr. Salvin observes : — " The materials for the nest are dead 

 shoots of the tamarisk, which form the outside, the inside and 

 lining being usually Coot's or Duck's feathers mingled with wool 

 or camel's-hair ; and in nine cases out of ten, a small piece of 

 serpent's skin is loosely placed in the bottom of the nest." 



The eggs are from three to five in number, and differ somewhat 

 in the extent and colour of the markings. The usual type is very 

 pale bluish-white or French-grey in ground-colour, irregularly 

 marked and dashed with large brown spots, and with a few streaks 

 of the same colour and pale violet-grey shell-markings. Another 

 type is very pale blue in ground-colour, finely speckled with 

 pale brown, the spots being most numerous on the large end 

 of the egg. They measure from - 95 to 0*8 inch in length, and 

 from 0'67 to 059 inch in breadth. The eggs of the Rufous 

 Warbler very closely resemble those of the Tawny Pipit (Anthus 

 campestris) ; but, as a rule, the eggs of the latter bird are com- 

 paratively broader in proportion to their length. 



* Aedon galactodes— Saunders, Manual, p. 67 ; Sharpe, Handb., I., p. 202. 



