357 



SYLVIA GARRULA. THE WHITE-BREASTED 

 WARBLER. 



LESSER WHITE-THUOAT. BABILLARD. BABBLING WARBLER. 



Motacilla garrula. Linn. Fauna .Siiec. 254. 



Curruca garrula. Briss. III. 384. 



Sylvia Curruca. Lath. Ind. Oni. II. 509. 



Lesser White-throat. Mont. Orn. Diet. 



Bee-fin Babillard. Sylvia Curruca. Temm. Man. d'Orn. I. 209. 



Sylvia Curruca. Lesser White-throat. Jen. Brit. Vert. An. 109. 



Lesser Whitethroat. Curruca garrula. Selb. Illustr. I. 215. 



Upper parts hroiKnish-grey ^ the head dark ash-grey^ the wings 

 and tail dusky, the secondaries edged tcith light grey, the lateral 

 tail-feathers nearly ichite ; lower parts ichite, the breast tinged 

 with red, the sides with grey. 



Male. — The Babillard, which although very closely allied 

 to the species last described, and very similar to it in form and 

 habits, is not so extensively distributed, nor so common in any 

 locality, may be described, as to form, in nearly the same terms 

 as that bird. The bill is short, rather broader than high at the 

 base, compressed beyond the middle, its outlines straight, the 

 upper declinate at the end, the tip with a slight sinus. The 

 feet are slender, the tarsi compressed, with eight anterior scu- 

 tella, the hind toe with eight, the inner with the same num- 

 ber, the third with twelve, and the fourth with eight scales ; the 

 claws extremely slender, compressed, laterally grooved, mode- 

 rately arched, rather long, and very acute. 



The plumage is very soft and blended. The bristle-feathers 

 at the base of the bill very small. The wings of moderate 

 length, broad, semi-ovate, with eighteen quills ; the first quill 

 is minute and acuminate, the second, third, and fourth nearly 

 equal, the third however longest, the third and fourth with the 

 outer web slightly cut out toward the end ; the secondaries 



