93 SYLVIID^. 
the time evidently trying to decoy the intruder fi'om their 
nest. They undoubtedly breed twice a year — according to the 
Spaniards^ three times. I have found the young well able to 
flyj and a nest with eggs ready to hatch, on the same day, the 
19th of April, an unfinished nest on the 8th of May, and a 
nest with eggs very hard sat-on on the 10th of that month. 
The nest much resembles the cocoons which are so common 
on pine trees in some parts of Spain ; any one would take 
them for the web of some insect ; but they are very troublesome 
to find. They are made of the cotton of plants and thistle-down, 
with small bits of grass beautifully sewn and interwoven with 
the corn or grass in which the nest is built ; the entrance is 
at the top, the bottom being the broadest part, the whole 
length about five inches. The usual number of eggs is five, 
generally of a pale blue ; but, as is well known, they vary 
strangely in colour. 
The inside of the mouth black; the irides very pale brown. 
102. Aedon galactodes (Temm.) . The Rufous Warbler. 
Moorish. Houmira. Spanish. Alzacola, Rubita, Vinadera. 
'^Abundant in the vicinity of Tangier, arriving in April 
and May, returning during September, many remaining to 
breed. Their habits are the same as those of the Nightingale. 
The nest, large and well built, is placed at some height from 
the ground, in thick foliage. The eggs, from five to six in 
number, only difier from Sparrow's eggs in the spots being 
more reddish. The males assist in incubation.'' — Favier. 
On the Spanish side, this "Cocktail" Warbler, as I should 
call it (from its well-known habit of continually jerking its 
tail up), is very plentiful, frequenting sandy lanes hedged with 
aloes and prickly pears, such as those close to the First 
Venta, near Gibraltar. As Favier remarks, they resemble 
the Nightingale very much in their habits, and are at first 
sight very likely to be mistaken for it ; only the Nightingale 
comes some three weeks or a month earlier. 
The Rufous Warblers mostly arrive near Gibraltar between 
the 1st and 5th of May. The earliest I noticed in 1869 was 
on the 28th of April, in 1870 on the 29th, in 1871 on the 
