108 BIRDS OF TUNISIA 



Subfamily ACEOCEPHALIN^. 



HYPOLAIS POLYGLOT! A (Vieillot). 



MELODIOUS WAEBLEE. 



Sylvia polyglotta, Vieill. Nouv. Diet, xi, p. 200 (1817). 



Hypolais polyglotta, Gerbe, licv. Zool. 1844, p. 440 ; Seebohm, Cat. 



Birds Brit. Mus. v, p. 79 ; Loche, ExpL Sci. Alg. Ois. i, p. 275 (1867) ; 



Koenig, J. f. 0. 1888, p. 190 ; id. J. f. 0. 1892, p. 289 ; Whitakcr, 



Ibis, 1896, p. 92 ; Erlamjer, J. f. 0. 1899, p. 294. 



Description. — Adult male, spring, from Ghardimaou, North Tunisia. 



Above olive-green ; wings and tail-feathers pale brown, very narrowly 

 margined with grey ; lores, superciliaries and entire underparts pale lemon- 

 yellow ; bastard primary longer than the primary-coverts. 



Iris brown ; bill yellowish-brown, becoming pale orange on lower 

 mandible; feet pale brown. 



Total length 4-50 inches, wing 2-50, culmen -bb, tarsus '75. 



Adult female similar to the male. 



Observations. — This species may be distinguished from the Icterine 

 Warbler by its smaller size, and by its bastard primary being longer than 

 the primary coverts. 



Like some other birds, such as the Chats, which have an eastern 

 and a western representative species in the Western Palaearctic Eegion, 

 H. polyglotta and H. icterina both occur in the Tunisian Eegency, 

 which appears to be the meeting point of the two forms. The present 

 species is perhaps the commoner of the two in the Eegency, although 

 H. icterina is by no means scarce there either. In Algeria H. poly- 

 glotta appears to be more or less abundant, while I have no note 

 of the occurrence of H. icterina in that country. From Marocco, 

 as might naturally be expected, the latter species is unrecorded, 

 while H. polyglotta is plentiful there. In Europe the Melodious 

 Warbler is common in Spain and Portugal, as also in the south and 

 west of France, becoming rarer further eastward, although in some 

 parts of Italy it is by no means uncommon. H. polyglotta is abundant 

 in many parts of Tunisia during the spring and summer months, and 

 breeds in the oases of the south as well as in the woods of the north of 

 the Eegency. Mr. Aplin found the species not at all uncommon in 

 May and June among the wild olive groves, and on the bush-clad 



