5S 



SOUTH- WESTERN ASIA 



monotonous that the bird is known in the fen-districts as the reel-bird. In 

 length it is about 5 inches; in colour reddish brown above, and white on the 

 throat, the under tail-coverts being pale chestnut. The sedge-warblers are repre- 

 sented in this area by the moustached sedge-warbler (Lusciniola melanopogon), 

 which inhabits Asia Minor, northern Africa, and southern Europe, where it dwells 

 among swamps covered with reeds, here and there varied with low bushes. By 

 no means shy, it will continue hunting for insects when its haunts are approached. 

 It may be easily distinguished from the reed-warblers by its peculiar habit of 

 spreading the tail aloft and shrugging its wings. Of the size of the common reed- 

 warbler, it has a dark, rusty brown back due to the feathers having dark centres. 

 The head is nearly black, the first primary broad and long, and there is a distinct 

 greyish white eye-stripe. 



Cetti's warbler (Bradypterus cettii) is one of the best songsters of the 

 Mediterranean area, in some parts of which it remains the whole year round, 

 singing every month. Living in impenetrable thickets, this warbler makes a nest 

 near the water, in which it lays bright red, unspotted eggs. In length it is 

 5| inches. The plumage is a rich russet-brown above, and white on the throat 

 and breast. The tail-feathers are ten in number. 



Both the w r ren and the goldcrest occur in south-western Asia, 



while still more common is the fan-tailed Cisticola cursitans, which 



is light brown with darker streaks above and white shading into brownish below, 



the general appearance being that of a small reed-warbler with a curved beak 



and fan-shaped tail. 



The coal-tit ranges as far west as Japan, the blue tit into Persia, while the 

 sombre tit (Panes lucjubriv) of the south of Europe occurs in Asia Minor and 

 Palestine. The last-named species somewhat resembles the marsh-tit, which it 

 exceeds in size by about an inch, and is further distinguished by the black chin 

 and throat, the browner crown, and the white edges to the wings and tail. A shy, 

 unsociable species, inhabiting mountain valleys with wild fruit-trees, it appears 

 on its breeding-grounds at the end of April, to leave again for the south at the 

 beginning of September. The bearded tit (Panurus biarmicus), distinguished by 

 its curved beak and the length of the tail, in which the feathers are graduated, 

 also enters the Mediterranean region. The favourite haunts of this bird (the sole 

 representative of its kind) are reed-beds, especially near the sea. Not infrequently 

 it is found in small patches of reeds, and when these die down it betakes itself 

 to dense willow bushes, and occasionally trees. The nest, always well hidden, is 

 placed on the ground in a bunch of reeds, and is made of grass and flags lined with 

 reed-flowers. The bearded tit still breeds in the vast reed-thickets of Friesland and 

 south Holland, but has become somewhat rare in England. It is more frequent 

 in southern France, especially in the Rhone delta, and it has been observed in 

 Spain. Very rarely it is found in Germany, as, for instance, in Oldenburg, on the 

 Moselle, Minister, and Mecklenburg. Its chief habitat includes south-eastern 

 Europe, Asia Minor, and western Asia as far as the Saisan Lake at the foot of the 

 Altai. It is a lively bird with a soft, twittering song, incessantly busy in climbing 

 up and down the waving reeds, and feeding on snails and aquatic and other insects, 

 ;specially aphides. In autumn and winter it collects in flocks to feed on the seeds 



