Among the Warblers 7 
During the winter months the woods are more or less deserted, 
the species most frequently seen being the Common Buzzard, which 
winters in these latitudes, and sundry residents, such as the Raven 
and Jay, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Great Titmouse, Chaffinch, 
Goldfinch and Serin Finch. But as spring approaches all is 
changed. Owing to the temperate nature of the climate and 
warmth of the sun, even in winter certain migratory species, such 
as the Common Swallow, never entirely leave the country, and no 
doubt for the same reasons some of the lessers Warblers likewise 
linger there. Those acquainted with the distinctive calls of these 
minute birds will hear some of them even during the depths of 
winter, when, according to popularly accepted ideas, they should 
be, with the rest of their class, many hundreds of miles south of 
the Straits. Amongst the smallest birds is Cetti’s Warbler (Ce¢éza 
cettt). It has a loud and penetrating cry, which, when once 
learnt, is never forgotten. These little birds delight in the cane- 
brake and brambles which cover every moist spot, amid which 
they make a most beautiful little cup-shaped nest, delicately woven 
of fibres, hair and wool for their rich rose-madder-coloured eggs, 
quite the reddest of any small eggs I know. 
In the glades of the lower-lying parts of the Cork Woods near 
Gibraltar there are deep sofos, or swamps, in fact miniature 
lagunas, the placid surface of which in early spring is white with 
the flowers of the water ranunculus. It is in such secluded spots 
that Cetti’s and other Warblers delight. In the masses of golden 
cytisus around these swamps another minute bird, Bonelli’s 
Warbler (Phylloscopus bonelliz), constructs its dome-shaped nest and 
deposits its small spotted eggs. These nests much resemble those 
of our Common Wren. It is very probable that this little bird, 
like the Chiff-Chaff, Wood and Willow Warblers, would nest on 
the ground were it not for the snakes and lizards, to avoid which 
it resorts to the fragile branches of the cytisus. Unfortunately, 
