THE WARBLERS 23 



habits. The typical Warblers are not remarkable 

 for any great variety or beauty of plumage, their 

 clothing is exceptionally chaste and unassuming ; 

 but on the other hand their New World representa- 

 tives are more brilliantly adorned — probably at the 

 expense of vocal power. Amongst the Old World 

 Warblers are to be found some of the sweetest 

 singers of all known birds. They are essentially a 

 musical group, but their vocal qualities are of very 

 varying degrees of excellence, not only between the 

 less nearly related species, but amongst others which 

 are apparently very closely allied. To some extent 

 it would seem that the quality of the voice was 

 correlated with generic distinctions. In the Grass- 

 hopper Warblers {Locustella) the song is most 

 monotonous ; in the Reed Warblers [Acrocepkahis) 

 it is certainly more musical, but of very unequal 

 merit ; in the Willow Warblers {^Phylloscopus) it is 

 also of variable musical quality ; in the Bush 

 Warblers {Cettia) it attains considerable beauty ; in 

 the Tree Warblers (Hypolais) certainly more ; whilst 

 in the typical Warblers {Sylvia) it probably reaches 

 its highest degree of attractiveness. Yet of all these 

 groups not one (even of exceptional claim to musical 

 skill) can be mentioned in which the song is of equal 

 merit in all the species comprising it. In every 

 group specially remarkable for vocal power some 

 species invariably introduce discord, their musical 

 abilities falling immeasurably short c^ the standard 



