SYLVIA. 385 
Genus SYLVIA. 
The genus Sylvia was established by Scopoli in 1769, in his ‘ Annus I. 
Historico-Naturalis,’ p. 154, for the reception of the Warblers, which 
were included by Linneus in his comprehensive genus Motacilla. Scopoli 
did not designate any type, and his genus has been reduced in its dimen- 
sions by the removal of various groups of birds at different times by 
different writers ; but as the Common Whitethroat is the Motacilla sylvia 
of Linnzeus, it becomes of necessity the type of the genus Sylvia, however 
much restricted. 
The genus Sylvia contains about a score species of birds closely allied 
to Phylloscopus, Acrocephalus, and Hypolais. The first primary is always 
very small, and in many species it is so minute that it does not project 
beyond the primary-coverts ; in none does it project beyond those feathers 
more than °3 inch, and it is never so long as half the length of the second 
primary. ‘The tail is nearly even in two species; in three species the out- 
side feathers are about ‘1 inch shorter than the longest, in four species 
about 2, in four species °25, in four species ‘35, and in one ‘4. The bill 
is shorter and less depressed at the base than in Phylloscopus; and the 
rictal bristles are only slightly developed. The feet and tarsus are stout ; 
and the latter is scutellated in front. The males of many of the species 
have black heads, and most of them have white on the outside tail-feathers. 
Most of the species have the tail shorter than the wing. In two the tail 
_is slightly longer than the wing, in another more decidedly longer, and in 
two others the tail is still more lengthened. 
The centre of distribution of the genus is undoubtedly the basin of the 
Mediterranean, and several species are resident on its shores. One is a 
resident as far north as the south of England ; but most of the species are 
migratory, breeding in Europe aud wintering in Africa. Several extend 
their range eastwards as far as Turkestan in the breeding-season, wintering 
in India; and one species, at least, has been found in China. Seventeen 
species are European ; but only half of these have any claim to be con- 
sidered British birds: one is a resident, four regular summer visitors, and 
three accidental stragglers on migration to our islands. 
The true Warblers are almost exclusively insectivorous; but in autumn 
most, if not all, of the species occasionally feed on fruit. They are all 
VOL. I. 2c 
