6 THE WARBLERS 



of our earliest migrants to arrive, and the first individuals are generally recorded 

 before the end of March. The main immigration usually commences along the 

 south coast during the second week of April and lasts about a month. The south- 

 ward journey is undertaken by the bulk of individuals during September, but it is 

 by no means unusual for solitary examples to be met with, even in Scotland, until 

 the end of October or beginning of November, [j. L. B.] 



4. Nest and Eggs. The nest is generally placed rather higher than that of 

 the garden-warbler, in bushes, undergrowth in woods, shrubberies, and lanes. It 

 is built of bents and occasionally honeysuckle bark, lined with finer grasses and 

 a little horsehair. (PI. xix.) Most of the work of construction is done by the 

 hen, but the cock has been observed to help (H. E. Howard, British Warblers, 

 p. 20 ; A. Ellison). Eggs, usually 4 or 5, sometimes 6 in number ; yellowish white, 

 clouded and blotched with different shades of yellowish brown and sometimes 

 almost black spots and streaks. The scarce and beautiful red type has a salmon- 

 pink ground and is similarly marked with pinky red. Pure white eggs or white with 

 a few shell-markings also occur at times. (PI. C.) Average of 100 eggs, -76 x -57 in. 

 [19*3 x 14'5 mm.]. The breeding season begins late in April in the south, but usually 

 not till mid-May. Incubation lasts about 15 days (H. E. Howard, op. cit.), and is 

 shared by both sexes. Saunders says that two broods are reared, but this is certainly 

 not always the case. [F. c. R. j.] 



5. Food. On their arrival hi spring they subsist principally on berries of 

 common climbing ivy, Hedera helix (H. E. Howard). Their diet comprises insects, 

 their larvae, and soft berries. In its southern winter quarters the species feeds on 

 peaches, figs, oranges, and the berries of the pepper-tree (Saunder's Manual). The 

 young are fed by both parents on insects and their larvae. [E. L. T.] 



6. Song Period. Immediately after arrival in mid-April till the end of July. 

 It has been heard by C. and H. Alexander on 31st August 1907 at Tunbridge Wells 

 (British Birds, i. 371). [E. L. T.] 



GARDEN-WARBLER [Sylvia hortensis (Bechst.). 1 Nettlecreeper, Peggy 

 (generic). French, fauvette des jardins ; German, Gartengrasmiicke ; Italian, 

 beccafico]. 



I. Description. The garden-warbler may be distinguished by its sober 



1 By strict rule of priority the name should be Sylvia borin (Boddaert), and the name Sylvia 

 hortensis should be applied to the orphean-warbler, now called Sylvia orphea. Custom, how- 

 ever, has sanctioned hortensis for the garden-warbler, and orphea for the orphean. As both 

 these names correspond to the English equivalents, there is an obvious advantage in retaining 

 them. ED. 



