50 GARDEN-WARr,LER. 



]\Iediterranean ; it is, however, locally distributed, and although 

 common in Southern Spain, is not known to breed in Sicily or 

 Greece, yet it does so in Palestine. On migration it leaves Europe 

 by the middle of October, and, passing through Asia Minor and 

 Northern Africa, is found in winter down to Cape Colony. East- 

 ward its range appears to be bounded by the Caspian and the Ural 

 Mountains ; but possibly it may extend as far as Omsk, on the 

 Irtisch, in Siberia. 



The nest, rather loosely made of grass stems externally, but with 

 a well-shaped inner cup of finer materials, is generally placed in low 

 brambles, shrubs and ferns ; sometimes among peas or in goose- 

 berry-bushes in a garden. The 4-5 eggs, laid from May 14th 

 onward, are white, marbled and blotched with shades of greenish- 

 and buffish-brown ; a good deal like one variety of those of the 

 Blackcap, but never, as in that species, suffused with a reddish tint : 

 they are also on the average a trifle larger and the shell is less 

 glossy : measurements 75 by "6 in. Incubation lasts 13 days, and 

 only one brood is, as a rule, reared in the season. The nestlings 

 are fed largely on insects, particularly on the caterpillar of the white 

 cabbage-butterfly ; but later, peas, fruit of all kinds and berries, are 

 largely consumed. From its partiality to figs this bird has acquired 

 the Italian name of Beccafico, which is, however, used as a compre- 

 hensive term for many other small species. Its song is continuous 

 and mellow, though softer and less rich than that of the Blackcap ; 

 the alarm-note being a harsh teck, resembling the sound made by 

 knocking two small pebbles together. In its habits the Garden- 

 Warbler is rather more shy and skulking than most of its congeners; 

 and it appears to be intolerant of rivalry, for it is often scarce in 

 those districts where the Blackcap abounds, and common where that 

 bird is scarce. 



Adult male in May : entire upper parts olive-brown, with a paler 

 eye-streak ; quill-feathers darker brown with narrow whitish tips and 

 margins ; under parts mostly buffish-white, purer in the centre of 

 the belly, and darker on the flanks ; bill brown, paler at the base ; 

 legs and feet lead-colour with yellowish soles to the latter ; irides 

 hazel; eyelids white. Length 575 in. ; wing to the tip of the 3rd 

 and longest quill 3 in. The female is slightly paler. The young 

 are rather more greenish-olive than the adults, and have well-defined 

 pale margins to the secondaries. 



