WARBLERS. 



503 



easily recognizable by the sub-terminal dark band on the tail, a native of the Spanish 

 peninsula and Xorth Africa, and f<ijl>'ia orphta, which extends its range a little further 

 north. The latter is not unlike the black-cap (.S. alricajyilla), the lower figure on this 

 page, gray, with the upper part of the head black, one of the commonest and best- 

 known warblers of Europe, in Scandinavia ranging north to 69° north latitude. The 

 black-cap is hiichly estconied for its melodious song, and therefore often lield in con- 

 finement. Savs 3Ir. Dixon : " You hear a soft, jilaintive note, sounding as though its 

 author were a hundred yards away ; gradually it rises in its tone ; you think the bird 



Fig. 247. — 6"j//fia iiisoria, barred warbler ; .V. salicaria, garden warbler ; S. atricapilia, black-cap. 



is coming nearer; louder and louder become the notes, till they sound as if the black- 

 bird, song-tlirusli, wren, robin, and warbler were all singing together. You perchance 

 cast your eyes into the branches above, and there see the little black-capped songster; 

 and, .ifter watching liim, find that all these lovely notes, low and soft, loud and full, 

 come from his little throat alone, and when at tlie same distance from you — so great 

 are his powers of modulation." The two other species represented in the same cut 

 are also well-known European warblers, iS. iiisoria being one of the largest and most 

 distinctly-marked species. Its breeding range seems to be very peculiar, since it is 

 only known to breed in a rather narrow licit from southern Swedeu through Germany, 



