374 Mr. J. H. Gurncy on the 



very delightful. These birds do not shun houses^ and may be 

 seen within a few yards of the Grand Hotel itself; but I 

 was rather surprised to see a pair fly across the river 

 Argente^ never baving associated M. undatm with reeds and 

 rusheSj and on the other hand again to meet with them on 

 the lofty sides of Mount Vinaigre, though the latter is more 

 like their Algerian habitation. A great many were clearly 

 raigrantSj but my son found one nest, which however was 

 empty. A good many small birds' eggs are possibly destroyed 

 by the " Loir/^ a large fruit-eating dormouse which is 

 common, but in this case the rain had probably made the 

 bird desert the nest. This Warbler can dispose of a larger 

 insect than many people would give it credit for, but in seeking 

 nourishment it seems at times to denude the base of the 

 lower mandible of feathers, as I have noticed in England, 

 where perhaps food food is scarcer than in its native France. 

 I follow the B. O. U. List in designating this bird Melizo- 

 philus undatus, but the authors of ' Les Richesses Ornitho- 

 logiques ' call it ryropkthabna provincialis. This generic 

 term was established long ago for Sylvia melanocephala and 

 S. sarda, but if Me.lizuphilus be adhered to, it can be restricted 

 to M. undatus and Sylvia deserticola Tristr., which is very 

 like M. undatus. M. le Baron de Palluel thinks that the 

 bird of Provence is a larger and brighter race than that of 

 the north of France, and proposes for the latter the name 

 Melizophilus armoricns. 



FiRE-CREST. Regulus ignicapillus. 



R. ignicajjillus and R. cristatus are, no doubt accidentally, 

 omitted from Jaubert's list. Neither are they in Duval- 

 Jouve's list, but to make up for this R. modestus{PhyUoscopus 

 superciliosus ?) is introduced, probably by a mistake, yet 

 the Yellow-browed Warbler might occur as an accidental 

 straggler. 



GRASSHorPER Warbler. Locustella ncevia. 



Once or twice we thought that we caught the trilling 

 song of L. navia, nor is this unlikely, as Duval-Jouve says 

 that its arrival continues during the whole spring. The 



