382 A PRACTICAL HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



falling in the air. Chestnut-red throat of male distinguishes 

 it from all the smaller warblers (except perhaps Dartford which 

 lacks white moustachial streak found in both sexes of Subalpine), 

 and red eyelids of both sexes prevent confusion with anj^hing but 

 La Marmora's Warbler, in which hen has grey and not white under 

 surface as in Subalpine. (F.C.R.J.) 



Breeding-habits. — Nests in low bushes, sometimes evergreens, 

 such as myrtle, and often in cistus plants about 1 to 3 ft. from 

 ground. Nest. — Slight, but neat, built of dry grasses, and bits of 

 down or thistle, lined finer grasses or sometimes with hair or fibre. 

 Eggs. — 3 or 4 as a rule, rarely 5. Greenish or greyish-white in 

 ground-colour, with fine spots of dark umber and ashy-violet, 

 chiefly towards large end. A beautiful erythristic type (Spain) has 

 pinkish ground and bold chestnut-red spots or blotches and some- 

 times lavender shell -marks. Average of 69 eggs, 16.5 x 12.9 mm. 

 Breeding-season. — From second week April to early June, so probably 

 double-brooded. Incubation. — Chiefly by female, but Lynes once 

 records flushing male from eggs. 



Food. — Chiefly insects and their larvae. Lynes records beetles, 

 caterpillars, and a few small grass -seeds in stomach. 



Distribution. — Scotland. — Two. One St. Kilda (0. Hebrides) 

 June 14, 1894 (Sharpe, Bull. B.O.C., iv, p. 9). One Fair Isle 

 (Shetlands) adult male. May 6, 1908 (W. E. Clarke, Ann. Scot. Nat. 

 Hist., 1909, p. 72, and Studies in Bird Migration, ii, p. 128). 



Distribution. — Abroad. — Italy, Sardinia, Corsica, Sicily, southern 

 Alps to Savoy, south-east France, Spain, and Portugal. Partially 

 migratory, passing through Algeria. Replaced as breeding bird 

 in north-west Africa, and in south-east Europe and Asia Minor, 

 by allied races. 



SYLVIA UNDATA 



i6o. Sylvia undata dartfordiensis Lath.*— THE DARTFORD 

 WARBLER. 



Sylvia dartfordiensis Latham, Gen. Syn. Suppl., i, p. 287(1787 — 



Bexley Heath, near Dartford). 



Melizophilus provincialis, Selby, Brit. Orn., i, p. 219 (1833); Sylvia 



provincialis Seebohm, Hist. Brit. B., i, p. 414. 



Melizophilus undatus (Boddaert), Yarrell, i, p. 398 ; Sylvia undata 



(Boddaert), Sa\xnders, p. 55. 



* The Dartford Warbler had been in the undisturbed possession of the 

 name provincialis for over 60 years, when Gray, and later Newton and Dresser, 

 correctly adopted undata; and as the British race is darker and smaller it must 

 be called S. u. dartfordiensis. The generic separation of Melizophilus is not 

 tenable. — E.H. 



