1922.] tlie Near East and Tropical East Africa. 9 



A series of seven birds from Sareptii in southern Russia have 

 winiTS varvino- from 79-83 mm. and culmens of 14 mm. As 

 Hartert points out (V(">g. pal. Fauna, p. 582), eastern birds 

 are as a rule larger than \vostern birds, especially the 

 winter visitors lo eastern and southern Africa. 



Now the eastern African, Egyptian, and southern Russian 

 birds mentioned above arc also rather paler (greyer) both 

 above and below than other European birds. 



Winter birds from Sierra Leone agree with the darker 

 and more yellow form from western and southern Europe, 

 whilst the paler and greyer birds appear to winter in southern 

 and eastern Africa west to Lake Tanganyika. Birds from 

 Palestine on autumn passage from 27. viii. to 0. x. would 

 appear to include lioth races. 



Now my experience goes to show that in any species 

 with a wide range, those birds which breed in a country 

 which suffers from a severe winter, travel farther south in 

 winter than those birds which breed in a more equable 

 climate, even though both communities entirely evacuate 

 their l)reeding-quarters during the winter months. I am 

 therefore inclined to think that those Garden-Warblers 

 which wc find in tropical and southern Africa in winter are 

 the birds which breed in Russia and central Asia. This 

 theory is also borne out by the size and paler colour of 

 winter birds from such southern climes. 



It certainly looks as though we must accept an eastern 

 and western race of the Garden-Warbler, basing the eastern 

 race on an average larger size and paler plumage. Johansen 

 (Orn. Jahr. xviii. 1907, p. 199) has already named a race 

 from western Siberia pallida, but it is based on pyler colour 

 and smaller size. 



SYLVIA COMMUNIS. 



Sylvia communis communis Latham. 



All my winter birds from Kenya Colony are of the typical 

 race. They appear to arrive in late October or early 

 November and remain the winter, stretching south to Dar- 

 es-Salaam (25. xi.). My latest spring rci;ord is at Kilimanjaro 

 on 26.iii. 



