1038 WHITE THRO A T 



the whole plumage above is of a smoky-grey, while the bird in its 

 movements is never obtrusive, and it rather shuns than couits 

 observation, generally keeping among the thickest foliage, whence 

 its rather monotonous song, uttered especially in sultry weather, 

 may be continually heard without a glimpse of the vocalist being 

 jDresented. The nests of each of these species are very pretty 

 works of art, lirmly built of bents or other plant-stalks, and usually 

 lined Avith horsehair ; but the sides and bottom are often so finely 

 woven as to be like open basket-work, and the eggs, splashed, 

 spotted or streaked mth olive-brown, are frequently visible from 

 beneath through the interstices of the fabric. This style of nest- 

 building seems to be common to all the species of the genus Sylvia, 

 as now restricted, and in many districts has obtained for the builders 

 the name of "Hay-Jack," quite without reference to the kind of 

 bird which puts the nests together, and thus is also applied to the 

 Blackcap, *S'. atricapilla, and the Garden- Warbler or Pettichaps. 

 All these four birds, as a rule, leave Great Britain at the end of 

 summer to winter in the south. Two other species, one certainly 

 belonging to the same genus, S. orphea, and the other, *S'. nisoria, a 

 somewhat aberrant form, have occurred two or three times in Great 

 Britain. The rest, numbering j^erhaps a dozen, must be passed 

 over. 



Nearly allied to Sylvia is Melizophilus, which consists of two 

 species, one of them the curious Dartford Warbler of English 

 Aviiters, M. undatus or provincialis. This is on many accounts a 

 very interesting bird, for it is one of the few of its family that 

 winter in England, — a fact the more remarkable when it is known 

 to be migratory in most parts of the Continent. Its distribution 

 in England is very local, and chiefly confined to the southern 

 counties, where it has of late years become so scarce that its 

 extermination seems probable. It is a pretty little dark-coloured 

 bird, which here and there may be seen on furze-grown heaths 

 from Kent to Cornwall. In spasmodic gesticulations the cock 

 sui'passes the Whitethroat ; but these feats are almost confined to 

 the pairing season, and at other times of the year the bird's habits 

 are retiring. For a species with wings so feebly formed it has a 

 wide range, inhabiting nearly all the countries of the Mediterranean 

 seaboard, from Palestine to the Strait of Gibraltar, and thence 

 along the west coast of Europe to the English Channel ; but every- 

 where else it seems to be very local. 



This may be the most convenient place for noticing the small 

 group of Warblers ]>elonging to the well-marked genus Hypolais, 

 which, though in general appearance and certain habits resembling 

 the Phylloscopi ([Willow] Wren), Avould seem usually to have little 

 to do Avith those birds, and to be rather allied to the Sylviinse, 

 if not to the Acrocephalinx (Warbler, page 1020). They have a 



