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THE PERCHING BIRDS 



Orphean 

 Warbler 



The orphean warbler (S. orphea) is one of the larger representatives 

 of the group in Europe, which it visits in April, not continuing its jour- 

 ney north of the Baltic. Mr. Seebohm writes that ' ' the song is 

 louder than that of the blackcap, but I thought it somewhat harsher. Its alarm 

 note is very loud, as loud as that of the blackbird. In the Parnassus I found it very 

 common, and obtained thirteen nests between the third and twenty-first of May. 

 They were easy to find in the bushes which were scattered over the rocky ground 

 above the region of the olive and the vine, but when we got into the pine region 

 they disappeared. My friend Captain Verner informs me that he has found nests 



RUFOUS AND ORPHEAN WARBLERS. 



(One-half natural size. ) 



of this bird in Spain placed near the summit of young cork trees, about twelve 

 feet from the ground. The nest is a tolerably substantial one and deep, composed 

 of dry grass and leafy stalks of plants. Inside it is built of finer grass, and lined 

 sparingly with thistle down or the flower of the cotton grass. . . . The ground 

 color of the eggs of the orphean warbler is white, sometimes faintly tinted with 

 gray, and sometimes tinted with brown. The color of the overlying spots varies 

 from olive brown to nearly black. The orphean warbler is a large form of the 

 blackcap, and decidedly more elegant in shape than that species. The adult male 

 has the crown sooty black; the general color of the upper parts is dull slaty gray; 



