74 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 
of most of the side feathers of the tail, which are also 
yellow; the quill-feathers are narrowly bordered with 
white; the two middle feathers of the tail are black; 
a black line passes from the base of the beak to the 
_ eye; the iris is carmine-red; the beak bright reddish 
brown; the legs and feet are ash-colour. ‘The female 
is olive-green on all the upper parts of the body; the 
under parts greyish white; the shafts of the feathers 
dusky; flanks yellowish, streaked with brown; the 
tail-feathers are dark olive, those on the sides tipped 
with yellow; the wings and wing-coverts brown; the 
beak browner than in the male. The young birds 
resemble the female, with the addition of dark shafts 
to the feathers of the upper plumage; the iris and 
beak are dusky.” 
The eggs are about one inch two lines long, and 
ten lines in breadth; of a white colour, slightly tinged 
with purple, with a few distinct spots of ash-grey and 
claret-colour. 
Family Syiviap#. 
To the Sylviade belong almost the whole of our 
migratory summer warblers: arriving in great num- 
bers, mostly in the months of April and May, they 
enliven with their song our gardens and hedge-rows 
till late in the summer, when their broods are 
hatched, after which their song usually ceases. In 
the autumn, mostly in the months of September and 
October, they again take their departure. This large 
