62 TUIIDID,5E. 



Sylvia (Phyllopneustc) rufa (Bec/ist.), Gray, Cat. Brit. B. p. 50(186;!). 

 Phylloscopus liiiloessinicus, Blanf. Ann. Nat. Hist. 18159, p. 3:^!). 

 Phylloscopus brelimi, Homcyer, Erinn. Vers, deutschl. Orn. 1870, 



p. 48. 

 Pliylloscopus abyssinicus, Blanf. Geol. Sf Zool. Abyss, p. 37S, pi. 111. 



lig. 2 (1870). 

 Phyllopneuste brelimi (Hmneyer), Dresser, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 25. 

 I'byllopiieiiste tristr.'inii, l)ri)vks,fde Dresser, P. Z. 8. 1872, p. 25. 

 Pbylloscopus collybita {J'teiU.}, Neiot. ed. Tan: Brit. B. i. p. 437 



(1873); Irby, B. Gibr. p. 89 (1875); DanfordSj-IIarvie Brown, Ibis, 



1875, p. 308; Blanf. East. Pers. ii. p. 181 (1870); Seebohni, Ibis, 



1877, p. 95 ; r)re.<iser, B. Eur. pt. Ixxiv. (1879). 

 Phyllopseuste rufa {Bechst.), Gieb. Tlies. Orn. iii. p. 120 (1877). 



Spring plumage. General colour of the upper parts olive-green, 

 slightly yellower on the rump ; eye-stripe somewhat ill-deflned, 

 greyish white, with a shade of yellow, and extending only a short 

 distance behind the eye ; lores and the feathers behind the eye 

 olive ; wing-coverts and quills brown, edged on the outside webs 

 with olive-green, and eraarginated as far as the sixth ; quills nar- 

 rowly tipped with white ; tail-feathers brown, the outside webs 

 edged with yellowish green, and the inside webs with a narrow 

 greyish-white margin. General colour of the underparts white, 

 shading into grey on the breast and flanks, and more or less suffused 

 all over with yellow ; axillaries, under wing-coverts, and thighs 

 yellow ; inner margin of quills very pale huffish white. Bill Phyl- 

 loscopine ; upper mandible dark brown, under mandible scarcely 

 paler. Legs, feet, and claws dark brown, approaching black. Third 

 and fourth primaries longest, second primary sometimes intermediate 

 in length between tlie sixth and seventh, usually between the 

 seventh and eighth, and in rare instances between the eighth and 

 ninth : the exposed part of the bastard primary measures 0-5 

 to 0-G5 inch. Length of wing, male 2-55 to 2-25 inches, female 2-3 

 to 1 -95 ; length of tail, male 2-2 to 2-0, female 2-0 to 1-7 ; length 

 of culmcn 0-4 to 0-45. 



Summer plumage. This species suffers considerably from abra- 

 sion during the perils of migration. The upper parts fade into 

 olive-grey, the eye-stripe and underparts lose some of their yellow, 

 and the pale tips to the quills disappear. 



Autumn plumage. After the autiimn moult the whole of the 

 plumage becomes suffused with huffish yellow, which is almost pure 

 pale buff on the eye-stripe, breast, flanks, and under tail-coverts. 



Winter plumage. The huffish yclloAV pervading the whole of the 

 autumn plumage is never entirely lost by abrasion in winter. 



The Chiffchaff, or Chiffchaff Willow-AVarl)ler, breeds in the tem- 

 perate regions of Europe almost up to the Arctic Circle, and winters 

 on both shores of the Mediterranean, the southern limit of its winter 

 range being Abyssinia, 



