106 STRA Y FEA THERS FROM MANY BIRDS. 



also lower down the hills nearer the plains in the 

 thickets just outside the towns and villages. In one 

 place a mile or so from Lambessa it literally swarmed, 

 almost every bush by the side of a rough track ex- 

 tending across the country containing one of these 

 charming little birds. In its habits Tristram's Warbler 

 somewhat resembles a Whitethroat. It has the same 

 restless ways, and is continually hopping from twig to 

 twig, or flitting along in an uncertain manner from bush 

 to bush. It is most trustful and tame ; and on more 

 than one occasion, when I have been lying under the 

 scrub for shelter from the noonday sun, I have watched 

 it hopping about within reach of my hand, its bright 

 yellow eye being very conspicuous. If momentarily 

 alarmed, it drops into the centre of the bush, and you 

 lose sight of it until it has regained confidence and hops 

 once more into view. Sometimes it perches on the 

 topmost spray of a bush, and utters its sweet and 

 simple song, then flutters into the air in chase of a 

 passing insect. Now and then a pair of birds would 

 chase each other through the brushwood, uttering a 

 succession of call-notes. 



Tristram's Warbler appears to feed exclusively on 

 insects, many of which it catches as they are flying 

 through the air. As is the case with the Dartford 

 Warbler, the present species does not show much 

 difference in the colour of the sexes, females I collected 



