l6o THE BIRDS OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 



rufous ; the outer tail feathers are bordered with white. The 

 chin and throat are white, as are the belly and under tail- 

 coverts ; the breast and flanks are pale brown. The axillaries 

 and under wing-coverts, noticeable in flight, are white, though 

 smoky in the Common Whitethroat. The bill and legs are 

 bluish grey, the irides yellowish white, but browner in young 

 birds. The breast and flanks are browner after the autumn 

 moult. The female is very similar to the male, and the young 

 bird is even browner than the adult in autumn, and its legs 

 and bill are paler. Length, 5'25 ins. Wing, 2"6 ins. Tarsus, 

 75 in. 



Garden- Warbler. Sylvia simplex Latham. 



Except in the extreme north the Garden-Warbler is found in 

 summer in Europe, north-west Africa, and parts of western 

 Asia ; it winters in tropical and southern Africa. In the 

 British Isles it is a common summer resident in England, local 

 in Wales, Scotland and Ireland, and only known in northern 

 Scotland and the Scottish islands as a bird of passage. There 

 is a noticeable autumn passage, especially in the east, probably 

 of European immigrants, and in the ShetLinds it is recorded in 

 spring. 



There is really nothing very distinctive about the Garden- 

 Warbler (Plate 64) ; it is an olive-brown bird with a buflf 

 throat, distinguished by its throat and size from the White- 

 throats, and by the absence of a black or brown crown from 

 the Blackcap. " Garden " is a misleading title, for it is a 

 woodland bird, frequenting thick coverts and woods where 

 there is an abundance of undergrowth ; in fruit raids it some- 

 times visits gardens. The song is wonderfully beautiful, a 

 continuous mellow warble, more sustained than that of the 

 Blackcap, but with much of the same quality, though the 

 contralto notes, similar to the Blackbird and Blackcap, are not 



