1HE RUFOUS WARBLERS. 203 



Adult Female. — Similar in colour to the male. Total length, 

 6*5 inches ; wing, 3-4. 



Range in Great Britain. — A rare and accidental visitor from the 

 south, having occurred on three occasions only, and always in 

 the autumn. One was shot by the late Mr. Swaysland, in Sep- 

 tember, 1854, near Brighton; a second specimen, now in the 

 British Museum, was procured in a half-starved condition, and 

 without its tail, at the Start, in Devonshire, by Mr. W. D. 

 Llewellyn, in September, 1869; while the third instance oc- 

 curred near Slapton, in Devonshire, in October, 1876, and is 

 vouched for by a well-known naturalist, Mr. H. Nicholls. 



Range outside the British Islands. — The Rufous Warbler is found 

 in most of the Mediterranean countries from Morocco to Pales- 

 tine, and it winters to the southward in Abyssinia. In summer 

 it visits the southern parts of Spain and Portugal, and, more 

 rarely, Italy. It is also found in Palestine in summer as far as 

 Beyrout, but to the north of the Lebanon only the Grey-backed 

 Warbler, A. familiaris^ occurs, and this species takes the place 

 of A. galactodes, from Greece, eastwards through Asia Minor 

 and the Caucasus to Turkestan, wintering in N.W. India and 

 probably in Arabia, as it is known to extend to Eastern Africa. 



Habits. — In some works this species is described as a very 

 wary bird, while in others its tameness is referred to as remark- 

 able. Mr. Dixon, in Algeria, had the greatest difficulty in pro- 

 curing a specimen, while Canon Tristram speaks of it as " seen 

 everywhere " in Palestine, " on upland and lowland alike, ex- 

 panding, jerking, and fanning its tail, with its conspicuous white 

 bar, on the bare fig-trees, among olives, on the top of any little 

 shrub, or on the pathway in front of the horseman, hopping 

 fearlessly on at his close approach." In Southern Spain, 

 according to Mr. Howard Saunders, it is not at all shy, until 

 it becomes conscious of being watched and followed ; it is 

 very lively in its habits, constantly flirting its tail, whence the 

 Spanish name of " Alza-cola " and " Alza-rabo." 



Nest. — Mr. Osbert Salvin has given the following account of 

 the birds, as observed by him in Algeria in 1858 : " Near 

 Ain Djendeli I used frequently to notice the present species 

 about the trees that overhung the dry, stony watercourses that 

 run from the hills into the plain beneath. We never found a 



