PHYLLOSCOPUS BONELLI 107 



Iris dark brown ; bill and feet light brown. 



Total length 4-50 inches, wing 2-70, culmen -40, tarsus -70. 



Adult female resembles the male, but is slightly smaller. 



Observations. — The plumage of this species varies a good deal in colour, 

 being sometimes greyer, at others greener. 



Dr. Koenig says he finds considerable diti'ereace in colour between the 

 male and female birds (/. /. 0. 1895, p. 259). 



Bonelli's Warbler is abundant throughout the more wooded parts 

 of Tunisia as a summer migrant, arriving in spring and returning 

 southwards in the autumn. A certain number of the species may 

 possibly also winter in the southern oases of the Eegency, although 

 I have no positive knowledge of their doing so. Canon Tristram 

 (Ibis, 1859, p. 418) says that this Warbler is abundant in the oases 

 of Algeria during the winter months, and Dr. Koenig met with it in 

 the same locality, migrating northwards in March and April. In the 

 mountainous and wooded parts of Algeria Bonelli's Warbler seems 

 to be plentiful during the breeding season, and from the Atlas districts 

 of Marocco, where in many parts it is the commonest Warbler to be 

 met with, I have examples of the species obtained in the month of 

 May at altitudes of over 5,000 feet above sea-level. 



This species seems to visit high altitudes more than the other 

 Phylloscopi, and in the upper Engadine I have found it common at 

 elevations of about 6,000 feet. 



Bonelli's Warbler undoubtedly breeds in North Tunisia, although 

 I never took a nest of the species there myself. Mr. Aplin, however, 

 met with it constantly in the oak-woods of Ghardimaou and El-Fedja 

 during the nesting season, and Baron Erlanger found young birds 

 of the species in July in the woods near Souk-el- Arba {J. f. 0. 1899, 

 p. 256). In its general habits this Warbler appears to resemble 

 P. sihilatrix, but its song, according to some observant ornithologists, 

 differs from that of the common Wood-AVren in being more melan- 

 choly or pathetic. 



Its breeding habits are said to resemble those of the Wood-Wren, 

 its nest being built of fine grasses, without any lining, and placed on 

 the ground. Its eggs, however, are said to be rather smaller than 

 those of P. sihilatrix. 



