108 HYPO LAIS 



ad. Upper parts greyish olive ; under parts lemon-yellow ; wings 

 and tail dull brown externally paler margined ; lores and a streak over the 

 eye yellow ; auriculars dull brownish yellow ; bill brown above, the lower 

 mandible yellowish ; legs dull slate ; iris brown. Culmen 0'68, width of 

 mandible at base 0'3, wing 3*1, tail 2'25, tarsus 0'8 inch ; first primary 

 scarcely as long as the coverts, second nearly equal to the fourth, the third 

 slightly longer. The female is a little paler than the male, and the young 

 bird has the upper parts darker and browner and the wing-feathers broadly 

 margined with dull buff. 



Hob. Central and northern Europe, as far north as Jemtland 

 in Sweden, and the borders of Nordland in Norway, as far east 

 as the Ural, and south to the Crimea and Caucasus, wintering 

 in South Africa; a very rare straggler to Great Britain. 



In many respects this species has considerable affinity with 

 the Aquatic Warblers, between which and the Phylloscopi it 

 forms a link, differing appreciably from both in its nest and 

 eggs. 



Frequents woods, gardens, etc., in the lowlands, both in damp 

 and dry localities, is shy and secretive in its habits, and even when 

 singing generally hides amongst the dense foliage. Its song is 

 rich and varied, somewhat Thrush-like, and it is an excellent 

 mimic, imitating with facility the notes of many other species. 

 It breeds in May or early in June placing its nest in the fork 

 of a bush or low tree. The nest is an exceedingly neat and 

 artistic structure, cup-shaped, made of fine rootlets, straws, 

 a little wool or moss, fine shreds of bark, &c., worked together 

 with spiders' webs, and lined with fine bents, rootlets, and hair, 

 and the eggs 4 or 5, seldom 6 in number, are rose-pink, sometimes 

 with a faint brownish tinge, speckled with dark purplish brown 

 dots and spots, and measure from O75 by O57 to 0'78 by 0*56. 



157. MELODIOUS WARBLER. 

 HYPOLAIS POLYGLOTTA. 



Hypolais polyglotta (Vieill.), N. Diet. xi. p. 200 (1817) ; Dresser, ii. 

 p. 517, pi. 80, fig. 2 ; Seebohm, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. v. p. 79 ; 

 Saunders, p. 77. 



Almendrita de verano, Span. ; Folosa, Portug. 



$ ad. (Spain). Differs from H. icier ina in being smaller, somewhat 

 duller in colour, with a different wing-formula. Culmen 0'6, width of 

 mandible at base 0'22, wing 2*5, tail 2 '05, tarsus 0'85 inch ; first primary 

 small, but 0'18 longer than the coverts, second rather shorter than the 

 sixth, third and fourth equal and longest. 



