315 



stone coloured or yellowish ground. These eggs are not unlike White- 

 throat's or Sedge Warbler's and the ground varies to pale yellowish 

 green, while the spots sometimes form a zone and range to brown in 

 colour. The second principal type has a creamy white to bluish grey 

 ground and is sparingly and boldly spotted and blotched with leaden 

 shellmarks and brown or ochreous. This type is much less common and 

 some eggs are very handsome. The third type is erythristic, the ground 

 being creamy or very pale sienna, sometimes thickly and finely marbled 

 and speckled with sienna brown and grey shellmarks, and in rare in- 

 stances boldly blotched with deep sienna red. Eggs of the second type 

 bear some resemblance to the boldest type of S. curnica eggs, while the 

 third type approaches that of Locustella iiaevia. Erythristic eggs are not 

 at all uncommon in Spain, but appear to be unrecorded from Greece. 



Like many residents in the Mediterranean area, it is an early breeder i^r^^'^ng 



•' ' •' Season. 



and the first eggs may be found in S. Spain and Malta about March 

 12 — 16, but the second half of April is perhaps the best time, although 

 probably 2 or 3 broods are reared in the season and fresh eggs may be 

 found throughout May and June and according to Hansmann, even in 

 August. The cock has been seen incubating by Irby and Lynes. 



Average of eggs (61 from Spain and Corsica by the writer and Measure- 

 39 by Rey), 17.86 X 13.6, Max. 19.3 X 14.2 and 18.2 x 14.5, Min. 

 15.3 X 13.4 and 16.8 X 13.1. Average weight, 95 mg. (Rey). 



[In the W. {.'anaries a somewhat smaller race, S. melanocephala leucogastra 

 (Ledru) is found; while in Syria and W. Persia the representative form is Bowman's 

 Warbler, S. m. niomus (H. & E.). Average of 3 eggs from Persia, 17.57 X 13.1. 

 Possibly also the birds from N. W. Africa and the E. Canaries are subspefically sepa- 

 rable. From Marocco to Tripoli it is a common resident and is said occasionally 

 to breed in long grass in Algeria, but more usually in thorny bushes, from April 

 to July. 



The Palestine Warbler, Sylvia melanothorax Tristr. breeds apparently only on 

 Cyprus, althongh possibly it may be found in Palestine, where Tristram obtained a 

 pair. Eggs figured by Dresser, pi. 106, fig. 3. The nest is built in low thorn bushes, 

 and the eggs, 4 in number, are laid in May. The ground colour is greenish, and 

 they are marbled and spotted with yellowish brown and violet grey shell marks, 

 sometimes showing a distinct zone at the big end. Average size of 12 

 17.28 X 13.3. Max. 18.3 X 13.5 and 18 X H Miu. 16.5 X l'^-3.] 



151. Menetries' Warbler, Sylvia mystacea M^netr. 



Plate 26, fig. 21 (Persian Gulf, A. G. Tomlinson). 



Eggs: Cat. Eggs Br. Mus. IV, pi. X, fig. 4. Dresser, pi. 106, fig. 2. 

 Sylvia mystacea Men. Dresser, B. of Europe, IX. p. 59. and Man. 

 Pal. Birds, p. 80. Hartert, Vog. Pal. Fauna, p. 595. 



ments. 



