The Garden Warbler. 73 



shores of the Mediterranean, but it does not appear to winter in Europe ; it is 

 not known to breed in Sicily or Greece, but Canon Tristram states that it does 

 so in Palestine ; eastwards its range extends to lat. 59° in the Ural Mountains : 

 its migration extends through Asia Minor and Egypt to the Sahara, Damaraland, 

 the Transvaal and to the east of Cape Colony. 



Generally but very locally distributed over the greater part of England, but 

 not recorded as breeding beyond Pembrokeshire and Breconshire in Wales, or in 

 the western part of Cornwall ; probabl}^ pretty generally distributed in Scotland, 

 although this has been questioned ; it has nevertheless been seen in most of the 

 midland and southern counties from Banffshire downwards. In Ireland the Garden 

 Warbler is both local and rare, but it has been recorded from Antrim, Fermanagh, 

 Dublin, Wicklow, Tipperar}^ and Cork. 



Gatke states that the Garden Warbler though quite common at Heligoland 

 during both spring and autumn migrations, is less numerously represented than 

 the Whitethroat. 



The Garden Warbler in breeding plumage is olive-brown above, the wings 

 and tail slightly darker, the flight feathers with narrow pale margins ; a slightly 

 paler streak over the eyes ; under parts dull bufifish white, purer on the bell}', 

 browner on the breast, flanks and centre of under tail-coverts. Bill deep brown, 

 base of lower mandible paler, feet leaden grey, iris hazel, eyelid white. The 

 female is very like the male but is slightly paler and probably has a somewhat 

 broader head, but of this I am not certain. After the autumn moult the adult 

 birds become more olive above and more buff-coloured below. Young birds 

 resemble their parents in winter plumage, but their secondaries have well-marked 

 pale margins. The breeding season extends from the end of May to about the 

 end of July. 



I have found this species breeding in considerable numbers in North Kent, 

 occupying the same localities as the Blackcap, which was also fairly abundant ; I 

 am therefore not prepared to endorse Seebohm's statement that "where the Garden 

 Warbler is abundant the Blackcap seems always to be rare, and vice versa.'' In 

 one sense, indeed, they do not breed together ; the Garden Warbler begins to 

 build about a fortnight or three weeks later than the Blackcap, and by the time 

 her first c^g is deposited the earlier bird is hatching out or rearing her family. 

 Although often heard in the woods, this species is less frequently seen there than 

 either the Nightingale or Blackcap ; it is a shy skulking little bird frequenting 

 the densest cover, the outskirts of woods where the undergrowth is thick and 

 tangled, also the so-called " shaws and shaves " of Kent, almost impenetrable 

 copses and plantations, well-timbered gardens, nurseries, and shrubberies ; the 



