THE GARDEN WARBLER. 73 



in due course became fairly tame ; it was tolerably quick at seizing spiders or 

 mealworms and even earwigs, when these were thrown into the aviary. In the 

 spring it began to record its song on one or two occasions, but I never heard it 

 sing out. Eventually a Rosa's Parrakeet bit one of its wings through, and a 

 week later it died. 



Family TURDIDJE. Subfamily S YL VIINsE. 



THE GARDEN WARBLER. 



Sylvia hortensis, BECHST. 



MORE delicate than the Blackcap, the Garden Warbler does not arrive in 

 .this country until early in May, and towards the end of September it 

 departs on its autumn migration. This species breeds locally throughout Europe, 

 from about 70 N. in Norway, and 65 N. in Finland and Russia, to the shores of the 

 Mediterranean, but it does not appear to winter in Europe ; it is not known to 

 breed in Sicily or Greece, but Canon Tristram states that it does so in Palestine ; 

 eastwards its range extends to lat. 59 in the Ural Mountains : its migration 

 extends through Asia Minor and Egypt to the Sahara, Damaraland, the Transvaal 

 and to the east of Cape Colony. 



Generally but very locally distributed over the greater part of England, but 

 not recorded as breeding beyond Pembrokeshire and Breconshire in Wales, or in 

 the western part of Cornwall; probably pretty generally distributed in Scotland, 

 although this has been questioned ; it has nevertheless been seen in most of the 

 midland and southern counties from Banffshire downwards. In Ireland the Garden 

 Warbler is both local and rare, but it has been recorded from Antrim, Fermanagh, 

 Dublin, Wicklow, Tipperary and Cork. 



Gatke states that the Garden Warbler though quite common at Heligoland 

 during both spring and autumn migrations, is less numerously represented than 

 the Whitethroat. 



VOL. I. O 



