260* SYLVIADE. 



Mr. George R. Gray mentions " that this is a rare species 

 even in the South of Europe, and was first noticed by Savi 

 in the Nuovo Giornale de Letterai, No. XIV. 1824 ; again 

 in his ' Ornitologia Toscana. torn. i. p. 270/ under the name 

 of Sylvia lusctnoides, and is also figured by Savigny in his 

 'Description de TEgypt, pi. 13, f. S.'" It appears to have 

 been noticed by M. Temminck in 1835 ; it is figured by 

 Pollidore Roux, in his Birds of Provence, and by Mr. Gould 

 in his Birds of Europe. 



This neat little Warbler belongs, like the Sedge and Reed 

 Warblers, to that small group which frequent moist and 

 shaded situations, among reeds and bushes near water. M. 

 Savi says that it arrives in Tuscany about the middle of 

 April, that it conceals itself among willows and shrubs, creep- 

 ing about among the low branches, and feeds on worms and 

 insects. The nest and eggs are probably unknown. 



The beak is brown ; the head, neck above, back, wings, 

 and tail-feathers reddish-brown ; the latter indistinctly barred 

 across with narrow darker bands ; chin and throat almost 

 white ; fi'ont of neck and breast pale brown ; under parts of 

 the body rather darker, but lighter in colour than the upper 

 surface of the body ; legs and toes pale brown. 



The whole length of the bird five inches and a half; the 

 wing, from the anterior bend, two inches and a half. This 

 bird resembles the Reed Warbler, and was at first mistaken 

 for it ; the plumage is, however, like that of the Nightingale, 

 and it was probably on this account that Charles Lucian 

 Bonaparte, Prince of Canine, has called it Pseudoluscinia. 



