RUFOUS WARHLEH. 357 



ill which it has been obtained. It is common in Portu- 

 gal, according to Prof, du Bocage, and is abundant in 

 Southern Spain. A specimen in Mr. Gould's collection was 

 obtained in Savoy, but Italian naturalists are silent as to its 

 occurrence in their country or its islands, though Mr. Wright 

 states that it has been several times taken in Malta. Dr. 

 von Heuglin mentions an example in the Stuttgart Museum 

 said to be from the Gold Coast, but at present no other evi- 

 dence of its presence in West Africa is forthcoming. It 

 breeds in Algeria, and the adult male, from Mr. Gould's 

 collection, here figured and described, was shot in Tripoli. 

 Though migratory in Egypt it is resident in Abyssinia and 

 apparently in the Eastern Soudan. Birds from this part of 

 Africa have been described as a distinct species, Aedon minor, 

 but, as is now generally thought, unnecessarily. However, 

 another species, A. famUlaris (Menetries) has been discrimi- 

 nated, the validity of which is reasonalily maintained by 

 Canon Tristram (Ibis, 1870, p. 496) and some authorities, 

 though denied by others. This, according to Mr. Hume, goes 

 as far as India, and its existence makes the limits of A. 

 galactodes hard to trace. The latter, however, is said by the 

 Canon to inhabit Palestine, Asia Minor and Greece, though 

 the Strickland Collection contains specimens of A. familians, 

 procured by that naturalist in the Morea in May, 1836. 

 Whether it is the bird which occurs in Turkey is not known, 

 Imt A. famlllaris, originally described from Caucasia, is pro- 

 bably that found in Southern Russia and Persia. 



Its food is said to be grasshoppers and other insects. It 

 is a good songster. Mr. Salvin (Ibis, 1859, p. 309) remarks 

 of it in Algeria, that it is shy and careful to elude observa- 

 tion. When it alights on a twig, it expands its tail, shewing 

 the peculiar markings which terminate each feather, and, 

 while holding it thus extended, it raises it once or twice. 

 Though formerly grouped with the aquatic Warblers, marshy 

 ground is not at all requisite for its residence, as he observed 

 it frequently in an arid district ; but it would seem to prefer 

 a moister soil for its breeding-haunts. The nest is usually 

 placed conspicuously in a tamarisk-tree, without attempt at 



