404 SYLVITD.T.. 



orchards near Mnrcia, and Don Ignacio Vidal says it is 

 common near the lake of Albufera — but there is no evidence 

 of its occurrence in northern Spain. 



The bill is nearly black above, particularly towards the 

 point ; the edges of the upper mandible, and the base of 

 the lower mandible, reddish-yellow : irides and eyelids 

 varying with age from yellow to deep red : head, cheeks, 

 neck, back and upper tail-coverts, greyish-black ; the wing- 

 coverts and quills, blackish-brown, with rather lighter edges, 

 the outer tail-quills being broadly and the rest narrowly 

 tipped with light brownish-grey; the chin chestnut-brown, 

 in autumn mottled with white undulations which disappear 

 in spring ; throat, breast and sides, chestnut-brown ; the 

 edge of the wing between the carpal joint and the spurious 

 •wing-feathers, white ; belly white ; the wings and tail beneath, 

 and the lower tail-coverts, dark slate-grey : legs and toes 

 pale reddish-brown ; claws darker brown. 



Whole length rather more than five inches, the tail- 

 feathers alone being nearly half the whole length of the 

 bird, which is one of the smallest found in England. The 

 wing from the carpal joint to the end of the longest pri- 

 maries only two inches : the second primary equal to the 

 seventh : the third equal to the sixth. The tail has the 

 outer feathers three-eighths of an inch shorter than those in 

 the middle. 



Females are more tinged with brown above, and lighter 

 beneath, while the chestnut-brown gorget does not extend 

 so far down as in the males. 



The young, after leaving the nest, have the upper parts 

 much as in the female, but the secondaries and tail-feathers 

 are edged with rufous, and the edge of the wing, which is 

 white in the adult, is pale rufous. Beneath, the colour is 

 dull rufous, palest on the throat and deepest on the flanks. 

 The irides are brown. 



The generic term MeUzopli'das was applied to this bird by 

 a naturalist who gave no reason for separating it from the 

 group of Sijlviiche, containing the Whitethroats and others, 

 to which it is nearly allied, and it is hard to see that the 



