Notes from Japan. 145 



nest and built principally of moss, lined with small fern-roots 

 and the orano;e-coloured ''flowering-stalks" of another kind 

 of moss. This latter material is utilised in nest-building by 

 several species in Japan, but more especially so by Cyanoptila 

 hella, under Avhich heading I have referred to it at greater 

 length. 



The eggs are closely speckled and blurred wilh rich 

 brownish pink or salmon-brown, which almost obscures the 

 lilac-grey underlying marks and the white ground-colour. 

 They measure 0"68x0'5 in. 



20. Cettia CANTANs (Tcmm. & Schl.). Japanese Bush- 

 Warbler. 



Cettia. cantons Seel)ohm, B. Jap. Emp. p. 74. 



Jap. : Uguisu. 



The Japanese Bush-Warbler, the "Nightingale" of the 

 Japanese themselves, is perhaps one of the best-known birds 

 in the Empire, owing to its loud musical song, which, in the 

 spring and early summer, is a very common sound in all the 

 wooded districts. For the size of the bird its voice is 

 remarkably powerful and jjcnetrating, and the sound of it 

 reaches to a very great distance. The true song is rather 

 monotonous, resembling the first few notes of that uttered 

 by the European Nightingale (Daulias luscinia), but from 

 this it will suddenly change and break out into a shrill 

 cachinnation or chatter, a sound which, I believe, is also used 

 by the bird as a cry of alarm. 



The favourite haunts of this species are on the wooded slopes 

 of the foot-hills, frequently at some distance from water. 



Between May 20th and June 6th I discovered six nests 

 of this bird, but only two of these contained eggs, the others 

 liaving young of various ages. In both cases the eggs were 

 quite fresh, and presumably the birds were laying for a second 

 time. The nests (witli one exception) were all placed in low 

 thickets of dwarf bamboo (Bambusa senanensis) , about two 

 or three feet from the ground. In form they were domed, 

 with a somewhat large side-entrance : they were composed 

 externally of big coarse blades of grass and dried leaves of 

 the bamboo, being lined with finer material and hairs. 



SER. IX. VOL. n. L 



