GREATER WHITETHROAT. 409 



abundant and it winters in some of the more southern parts 

 and in some of the Mediterranean islands. 



The bill is brown : the irides hazel : the head and neck 

 smoke-grey, tinged with brown ; the back, wing-coverts and 

 upper tail-coverts, reddish-brown ; quill-feathers greyish- 

 brown ; secondaries and tertials broadly edged with rufous- 

 buff ; outer web and three-fourths of the distal end of the 

 inner web of the outer pair of tail-feathers, which are shorter 

 than the rest, dull white ; the next pair have the outer web 

 dull white only near the tip and the inner web rather 

 darker ; the third pair have a whitish patch at the tip of the 

 inner web only ; all the others are dull brown, with rufous 

 edges ; chin and throat, white ; breast, belly, flanks and 

 under tail-coverts, pale brownish-white tinged with rose- 

 colour ; wing- and tail-quills beneath, light brownish-grey : 

 legs pale wood-brown ; toes and claws darker brown. 



The whole length is five inches and a half. From the 

 carpal joint to the end of the wing, two inches and five- 

 eighths : the second quill shorter than the fourth or fifth 

 which nearly equal the third. 



The female has the head of nearly the same colour as the 

 back and wants the rosy tint on the breast, while the other 

 colours are less pure. 



Young birds have a light-coloured space between the bill 

 and the eye ; the irides are yellowish-brown, and the outer 

 tail-feathers tinged with rufous. 



This species, being the Motacilla sylvia of Linnaeus, 

 seems, in the absence of other means of determination, 

 most proper to be regarded as the type of the genus Sylvia 

 instituted by Scopoli and afterwards recognized by Latham. 

 By many authors the generic name Curruca has been used for 

 the birds of this group, but that course is clearly opposed to 

 every principle of priority. Very nearly allied to the Greater 

 Whitethroat is the South-European 8. conspicillata. On 

 the other hand the Indian S. affinis, which has been regarded 

 as identical with the present bird, more nearly resembles the 

 next to be described. 



VOL. i. 3 a 



