52 BARRED WARBLER. 



September Sth, 1S96. In Ireland, the late Dr. Birkett obtained one 

 at Belmullet, co. Mayo, on September 24th, 1884, and another, 

 taken at Rockabill light on September 25th, 1896, was sent to 

 Mr. R. M. Barrington in the flesh. 



The Barred Warbler is a summer visitor to suitable localities in 

 the south of Sweden, Denmark, Germany east of the Rhine valley 

 — especially East Prussia, and Central Europe generally ; while in 

 the Mediterranean Nice is its western limit on migration, and in 

 Italy it appears to be restricted to the northern and north-eastern 

 provinces. It also nests in Bulgaria, Turkey, Southern Russia, 

 Persia and Turkestan ; in the latter at an altitude of 6,000 and 

 even up to 10,000 feet. In October or November it leaves Europe, 

 and probably winters in Central and North-Eastern Africa, having 

 been met with in Nubia and Northern Sennaar, among thorn-hedges 

 and thickets along the Nile. 



Towards the end of May the nest, which is more neatly and 

 firmly constructed than is usual among the Warblers, is placed in a 

 bush, or on the branch of a tree near the ground, in a plantation ; 

 occasionally, however, at the height of some twenty-five feet. The 

 eggs, generally 5 in number, are buffishwhite marbled with grey, 

 not unlike those of the Grey Wagtail : measurements "85 by '62 in. 

 Only one brood is reared in the season. The food is principally 

 insects, but in summer and autumn fruit and wild berries are freely 

 eaten. The song is said to be little inferior to that of the Garden- 

 Warbler ; the call is a sharp chek and the alarm-note a rattling rhar. 

 Plantations, thickets and thorn-growth are favourite resorts. 



Adult male in spring : upper parts ashy-grey, brighter on the head 

 and rump, browner on the wings ; upper tail-coverts barred with 

 dark slate and white ; upper wing-coverts slightly barred and tipped 

 witn white ; inner secondaries with broad white tips ; tail-feathers 

 tipped and margined on the inner webs with white, except the two 

 central ones, which are ashy grey with faint darker bars ; under 

 parts greyish-white with numerous grey transverse bars, deeper on 

 the flanks ; axillaries, under wing- and under tail-coverts mottled 

 white and grey ; bill brown, paler at the base ; legs and feet 

 brownish; iris pale yellow. Length 6-5 in. ; wing 3-4 in. Female : 

 browner and less barred. At first the young bird is hardly barred 

 at all, and much resembles a large Garden-Warbler with unusually 

 pale tips to the flight-feathers ; but subsequendy bars appear on the 

 buffish flanks and under tail-coverts, as well as on the rump, the 

 breast remaining dull white till the spring. 



