204 LLOYD'S NATURAL HISTORY. 



nest, however, in one of the above-mentioned p>aces ; and it 

 would seem that the bird prefers a moister soil for its breeding 

 haunts, such as is afforded by the lowlands near Ain Djendeli, 

 where the tamarisk-trees grow on the banks of the Chemora 

 and the small Ain or spring. The nest we found usually placed 

 conspicuously in the fork or on a branch of one of these trees, 

 and with apparently no attempt at concealment. The heights 

 at which the structure is placed vary from one to six feet from 

 the ground. In one instance I found a nest among the roots 

 of a tree in a bank-side, in a place where one would have 

 expected in England to have found the nest of a Robin. The 

 materials employed are the dead shoots of the tamarisk, which 

 form the outside the inside and the lining being usually Coot's 

 or Duck's feathers, mingled with wool or camel's-hair ; and, 

 in nine cases out of ten, a small piece of serpent's skin is 

 loosely placed in the bottom of the nest." It is curious that the 

 presence of this piece of snake-skin is also mentioned by Mr. 

 Howard Saunders, Canon Tristram, as well as by Mr. Seebohm, 

 who found it in the nests of A. familiaris in Greece, where the 

 natives declared it was woven by the birds into the nest as a 

 charm, to prevent natives from sucking their eggs. 



Eggs. Three to five in number. The ground-colour varies 

 from dull white to bluish-grey, profusely marked with overlying 

 streaks and spots or blotches of reddish-brown, being more 

 densely clustered round the larger end, and with underlying 

 spots of violet-grey ; one type is of a pale blue colour with tiny 

 spots of reddish-brown uniformly scattered all over the egg. 

 Axis, 0-85-0-95 inch ; diam., 0-65-07. 



THE WILLOW-WARBLERS. GENUS PHYLLOSCOPUS. 



Phylloscopus, Boie, Isis., 1826, p. 972. 



Type, P. sibilator (Beehst.). 



The members of the genus Phylloscopus are small birds of 

 delicate form and colour, the principal tints of the latter being 

 green and yellow. Four species of the genus occur in Eng- 

 land, three as breeding birds from the south, and one as an acci- 

 dental visitor from the far east. The bill is somewhat like that 

 of some of the Flycatchers, which these little Warblers to a 

 certain extent resemble in their habits. The bill is beset 



