WARBLERS 79 



but lately the officials have taken exception to their 

 presence and destroy the nests as fast as they are built. 



The nest is constructed of mud, and globular in shape, 

 with an entrance hole near the top, and has no tunnel. 

 Eggs three, and white speckled and blotched with red- 

 brown and purplish-black. 



All the Swallows are insect feeders, subsisting chiefly 

 on flies, mosquitoes and the like. 



WARBLERS. 



Amongst the members of the Family Sylviida there 

 are many unassuming, sombrely plumaged little birds 

 possessed of more than ordinary architectural skill. 



First of all comes the Green-backed Bush-Warbler 

 (Camaroptera olivacea), or Tailor-Bird, as it is appro- 

 priately called in Grahamstown. It is olive-green on the 

 upper parts, except the crown of the head, which is grey, 

 the latter being also the colour of the under parts, except- 

 ing the centre of the abdomen and under tail-coverts, 

 which are white. 



It inhabits the thick bush and forest regions, ranging 

 from George in the Cape Colony eastwards and north- 

 wards. 



It constructs a neat purse- or semi-dome-shaped nest 

 of fibres and fern stems, lined externally with moss and 

 internally with vegetable down. It is situated in a low 

 thick bush, and has the leaves in the immediate vicinity 

 of the nest stitched to it with fine fibre-like flax from 

 seed-pods, &c., and cobwebs. It lays three pure white 

 eggs. 



This Warbler is called the Bush-goat on account of the 

 plaintive goat-like call to which the bird gives utterance. 



