304 THE BIEDS OF HELIGOLAND 



The breeding area of this species extends, according to Seebohm, 

 through Greece, Asia Minor, Palestine, Turkestan, and Persia, as 

 well as to the north-eastern parts of Africa. 



The example shot here undoubtedly belongs to the eastern 

 form, S. pallida] the western variety, S. opaca (Lichtenstein), 

 which one would hardly expect to meet with here, appears, so far as 

 I am able to judge from the limited material at my disposal, to be 

 a little larger, more inclined to rust colour than to olivaceous, 

 besides differing in the construction of the wing, the second 

 flight-feather being of equal length to the seventh, and not, as in 

 S. pallida, to the sixth. 



The coloration of my specimen is as follows: All the upper 

 parts, as well as the edges of the smaller and larger wing-coverts, 

 are of a pale olive-brown grey (oliven-braungrau), with a very 

 marked olive-yellow tinge; the lower parts are dull whitish 

 ochreous yellow. The flight-feathers and rectrices are pale greyish 

 brown, the outer web of the outermost pair of the latter being 

 whitish. 



The feet of the freshly-killed bird were dark bluish grey, the 

 colour being very dark on the toes ; the bill is of very pale whitish 

 horn colour (weisslich hornfarben), the tip being hardly darker 

 than the rest of the organ. 



In the wing, the second flight-feather is equal in length to the 

 sixth; the third, fourth, and fifth form the tip of the wing, the 

 last being about '04 in. (1 mm.), shorter than the other two. 



Total length of the fresh example, 4*68 ins. (119 mm.) ; length of 

 wing, 2'40 ins. (61 mm.) ; length of tail uncovered by wing, -98 in. 

 (25 mm.) ; length of tail, 1*92 ins. (49 mm.) ; the outer pair of tail- 

 feathers is 16 in. (4 mm.) shorter than the rest. Length of bill, 

 43 in. (11 mm.) ; length of tarsus, '90 in. (23 mm.). 



119. Booted Warbler [ZWERG-SANGER]. 

 SYLVIA SALICAKIA, Pallas. 1 



Sylvia (Iduna) salicaria. Naumann, xiii. ; Blasius, Nachtrage, 79. 

 Sooted Warbler. Dresser, ii. 541. 



Riverain botte. Schlegel, Krit. d. Europdischen Vbgel, 



pp. xxx. and 60. 



' Here is a small Reed Warbler with the tail of an ordinary 

 Warbler.' These were the words with which Glaus Aeuckens pre- 

 sented to me, on the 28th of September 1851, a small bird ivhich 

 he had just shot. And the bird was indeed almost an exact minia- 



1 Hypolais caligata (Licht.). 



