THE WARBLERS. 195 



consisting chiefly of dry grass, with a. little moss, a few cob- 

 webs, and a scanty lining of horsehair. 



Eggs. From four to six in number. There is great variation 

 in the colours and markings. The most common type is 

 olive-brown or 'dull white tinted with olive-brown, and then 

 smudged, as it were, with darker olive all over the egg, and 

 clouded with grey round the larger end. This type of egg has 

 also some blackish-brown spots or blotches scattered promiscu- 

 ously over the surface. A scarcer type has the ground-colour 

 white, and the overlying spots and blotches are very faintly 

 indicated, the underlying grey markings predominating. A 

 very handsome egg is sometimes found, which is salmon-pink, 

 streaked or spotted with underlying reddish-brown markings, 

 with a spot or streak of blackish-brown scattered here and there. 

 Axis, 075-0-85 inch ; diam., 0-55-0-6. In the Canaries a 

 curious egg is laid by the Blackcap, pale greenish-white, 

 with a ring of tiny dark greenish dots round the larger end. 

 Mr. Meade-Waldo procured several clutches of this form of egg. 



VI. THE GARDEN-WARBLER. SYLVIA SIMPLEX. 



t MotciciUa salicaria. Linn., S. N., i., p. 330 (1766). 

 Sylvia simplex, Lath., Gen. Syn. Suppl, i., p. 287 (1787). 

 Sylvia hortensi^ Bechst. ; Macg., Br. B., ii., p. 345 (1839) ; 



Seeb., Cat. B. Brit. Mus., v., p. 10 (1881); id. Hist. Br. 



B., p. 400 (1883); B.-O.U. ListBr. B., p. 13 (1883); Lil- 



ford, Col. Fig. Br. B., pt. ii. (1886) ; Saunders, Man., p. 49 



(1889). 

 Sylvia salicana, Newt. ed. Yarr., i., p. 414 (1873) ; Dresser, B. 



Eur., ii., p. 429, pi. 67 (1876). 



Adult Male. General colour above warm olive-brown, the 

 wing-coverts like the back ; quills dark brown, edged with 

 olive-brown like the back, the secondaries slightly paler at the 

 ends ; tail-feathers brown, with olive-brown margins ; the head 

 like the back, with a slight shade of ashy-grey on the sides of 

 the neck ; lores and eyelids ashy-whitish ; the ear-coverts pale 

 olive-brown, lighter than the back; above the eye a faint streak 

 of buff; throat, breast, and sides of body, ochreous-buff, 

 deepening on the flanks and vent j the centre of the breast, 



