merits. 



296 



coloured ground, and are spotted, sometimes boldly and sometimes only 

 lightly, with blackish brown. As a rule the markings are rather larger 

 and bolder than in the Eastern race, but many clutches are quite in- 

 distinguishable, and both are equally devoid of gloss. 

 Breeding jjj gpain tlic bcst time is about the second week in June, but I 



Season. • ii i • i ii r 



have seen an exceptionally early nest with eggs on May 13, and clutches 

 are not infrequently found at the end of May. In N. Africa the breed- 

 ing season begins earlier, and eggs may be found in May and June. 

 Measure- Average of 100 eggs (87 by the writer and 13 by Key), 18.69x13.51 



mm., Max. 20.1x13.6 and 20x15, Min. 17x13 and 18.4x12.3. 

 Average weight, 92 mg. (Rey). [A third form, H. 'pallida reiser i Hilgert, 

 is found in the Oases of S. Algeria.] 



141. Booted Warbler, Hippolais caligata (Licht). 



. Plate 22, fig. 29 (Kirghis Steppes). 



Eggs: Thienemann, Fortpfl. Taf. XXI, fig. 9 (errore). Dresser, 

 pi. — , fig. 43, 44. 



Foreign Name: Russia: Kamyschewlm milowidnaja. 

 Hypolais caligata Licht. Dresser, B. of Europe, II, p. 541 and 

 Man. Pal. Birds, p. 113. Hippolais caligata (Licht). Hartert, Vog. Pal. 

 Fauna, p. 575. 



Breeding Range: East Russia, from Olonetz east to Perm and 

 south to Astrakhan. [Also W. Siberia to the Yenesei, Transcaspia, Tur- 

 kestan and Kashmir.] 

 Con- This bird is a summer visitor, whose northern limit extends to the 



Latscha Lake in the Olonetz Government (Meves), while it is not un- 

 common in Moscow and Tula and also in the district between the rivers 

 Oka and Volga. Eastward it is found in the Perm and Orenburg Go- 

 vernments on the S. W. slopes of the Urals, while it is distributed through 

 the basin of the middle Volga southward to Saratow and the Kirghis 

 steppes in the Astrakhan Government. [In Asia it is now known to 

 be found in Transcaspia, Turkestan, the Altai range, Bokhara, and W. Si- 

 beria up to at least 61" N. in the Yenesei valley and E. to Krasnoyarsk, 

 as well as in Kashmir.] 



Sarudny writing from the Orenburg district, describes the nest as 

 built either close to or actually on the ground in dry meadows overgrown 

 with Caragaiia and Astralagiis bushes, generally on the edge of a thicket 

 or in single bushes in valleys. Nests from other sources are built in 

 twigs like those of other Tree-Warblers. They are neatly built of grasses, 

 stalks etc., lined with finer materials, such as fine grasses, horsehair, willow 

 and duck down, etc. Average width of cup 2 — 21 in., depth 11 — Ii in. 



tinental 

 Europe. 



