o 



8 2^he Oologists' Record, June i, 192 1. 



and become various shades of buffy-white when the eggs are 

 cleaned. Large spots and pronounced markings are rare — though 

 I found one or two such clutches and in such cases the markings 

 were well distributed all over the eggs. A characteristic form of 

 marking is a pronounced ring round the larger end and usually 

 considerably darker than the other colouring. 



Though eggs of the same clutch rarely show much variation, 

 these ring markings are not always found on all eggs of a set. 



Occasionally the ring has been formed so close to the top of the 

 egg, that it merges into a dark cap instead of a ring — while ring 

 markings round the smaller ends are not uncommon, in fact in one 

 clutch of five that I have, there ai'e two such specimens. 



Very pale sets with less pronounced rings are rare, though 

 occasionally found — but I only saw one such set. In this type of 

 surface marking, which as before stated often amounts almost to 

 suffusion, it is only natural that the shell spots, which are of a pale 

 purplish-grey, are practically indiscernible. However, they are 

 nearly always apparent at the larger end of the eggs and show 

 up fairly distinctly in the rings. 



Sylvia melanoccphala inomus. 



On the 22nd April, 1920, I took a very handsome clutch of five 

 eggs from a loosely constructed nest of the White-throat t\^pe, 

 which was placed 3 feet above the ground in a tiny orange bush 

 at the edge of a grove. The nest was quite well concealed, and the 

 (^ bird seen to visit the nest, though I did not secure it for a speci- 

 men — but I am quite certain that it was momus. The eggs 

 which had been incubated for two or three days, are greenish, 

 being boldly marked, and chiefly at the larger end, with spots of 

 sepia and various shades of brown on the surface, and with greyish 

 and pale slate shell markings. 



There was but little variation in the eggs of this set. This 

 species is a summer visitor, as are all other representatives of the 

 genus Sylvia, which are found in Palestine during the summer 

 months. 



This brings to a close my notes on the breeding Warblers — 

 though I beheve S. atricapilla, S. riteppelli, S. curnica, and others 

 all breed in Palestine, but I had not the good fortune to find any 

 nests, though I am certain several pairs of S. riteppelli were nesting 

 in some of the orange groves that I used to visit — but these biids 

 were few and far between. 



