SYLVIA ATRICAP1LLA. 51 



26. Sylvia conspicillata, Marmora. The Spectacled Warbler. 



Favier merely says of the Spectacled Warbler, that about 

 Tangier they are not common, and only seen on passage north 

 in March. He gives no date of their autumnal migration, but 

 states that they pass the winter somewhere further south. 



The earliest date on which they were obtained near Gibraltar 

 was on the 10th of March. Is a conspicuous, scrub-haunting 

 bird, frequenting dry and more open ground than the White- 

 throat, often being seen among cactus bushes. A sure place for 

 finding them is on the Carteian hills. They remain during the 

 breeding-season, but I did not myself find the nest. 



Chin and upper throat white, axillaries rosy rufous. 

 Male. Brown-grey; eyelid red ; secondaries and wing-coverts broadly 

 edged with chestnut ; below pale rosy rufous ; centre of belly white. 

 Female. Duller in plumage. Length 8^ inches. 

 Irides very light brown ; inside of mouth pale yellow. 



27. Sylvia hortensis, Bechstein. The Garden- Warbler. 

 "Found near Tangier, on passage to Europe, in April and 



May, returning in October, when it is nearly as plentiful as the 

 Common Whitethroat." Favier. 



The Garden- Warbler mostly arrives during the middle of 

 April, and was first observed on the 10th. The latest I saw was 

 on the 7th of October. They nest around Tangier and in the 

 Cork-wood, laying about the 10th of May, and are brought into 

 the market at Gibraltar as " becafigos ; " for later in the season, 

 like most of the family, they are great devourers of figs. 



General colour above and tail olive-brown ; underparts greyish white. 

 Head same colour as back ; axillaries and under wing-coverts buf ; chin 

 and throat not whiter than rest of underparts. Length 5- inches. 



28. Sylvia atricapilla (Linnaeus). The Blackcap. 

 Moorish. Shorrir el Kebir. 



" Is nearly as common as S. melanocephala about Tangier, 



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