The Oolo):^ists Record^ June i, 1921. 43 



mas " (four eggs at the most), and that laying is commenced at 

 the middle of May, continuing until th? middle of July, and that 

 it nests amongst the tamarisks (" tarays ") and always immediately 

 on the ri\-ers. — Editor]. 



Methodical hunting in clotlu'S that oni' can afford to ha\-e badly 

 torn (I tore xvw clothe^ nearly to rags) not forgetting gloves and, if 

 possible, a billhook, in dense bramble thickets where one hears the 

 bird singing, seems to be one of the best ways of tackling the nests 

 of this species in Southern Spain. The wonderful brick-red {.^^■s< 

 (which I tind do not fade noticeably), are of course unmistakable^ 

 and identification therefore presents no sort of difficulty. 



Melodious Warbler, Hippolais polygloita [Vieillot) is quite a 

 common bird, but it was only in May, 1920, that I really got to know 

 it. In 1911, I found a deserted nest containing three eggs at the end 

 of a quince bough on the edge of a swamp near Seville and I 

 imagined, especially after that, that it was a swamp-loving bird, 

 but I now know that it is not necessarily, if at all, a swamp fre- 

 quenter. This year I met with any number of breeding pairs, 

 and thev were invariably on dr^/ ground in cork woods wherever 

 there was an open glade in which gorse and other bushes grew. 

 The song and the bird are conspicuous enough, but I am not prepai;ed 

 to say that I know the difference between this species and its near 

 relative of more northern climes — the Icterine Warbler, Hippolais 

 iderina {Vieillot) which I found commonly in Northern France 

 while there during the War. Where these two species overlap 

 it must be somewhat difficult to identify any nest found, but the 

 nests I have found in the two remotely divided districts of Northern 

 France and Southern Spain have been dissimilar, and the eggs of the 

 Melodious Warbler are distinctly smaller on the average, but if 

 several lots of eggs were mixed, I should not care to try and separate 

 them. All the nests I found this year were, with one exception, 

 in gorse bushes and about 2 feet from the ground, and fairly well 

 concealed — the exception was in an evergreen shrub of sorts. 

 About 20th May seems to be a good date for fresh eggs. The nest 

 is very deep and neat, and often whitish looking on the outside 

 owing to the outer covering being of dead grey-white thistle leaf. 

 However, this is by no means invariable, but all nests found con- 

 tained a certain amount of plant down and were made of fine flowering 

 grasses, lined with finer grasses and a small amount of white 

 plant seed which resembled dandelion. The Icterine Warbler 



