152 Commauder H. Lynes on a 



are noted as containing snails, insects^ and a few grass- 

 seeds.— i/. F. JV.'] 



LUSCINIOLA MELANOPOGON MELANOPOGON (Temm.). 



The Moustached Warbler was met with in Sicily in winter 

 and summer, being evidently resident. It was not observed 

 in Egypt, but this was no doubt, as the late Captain Shelley 

 has pointed out, due to the fact that it is very local. In 

 Sicily, at the Pantana di Lentini on 6th and 8th June these 

 birds were abundant and breeding. Many full-fledged young 

 were about, while old birds were in full song. Fourteen 

 nests were found, from three of which young had flown. 

 Six contained respectively four, three, three, three, three, 

 three eggs, all fresh, and the remainder were nearly ready 

 for eggs. These observations made it evident that second 

 bi'oods were being reared. 



Besides the greater contrast of dark and light colour, the 

 pronounced eye-streak and slimmer appearance, and the 

 habit of raising the tail up to the vertical served to distin- 

 guish this species from the Sedge- Warbler, in addition to 

 which the song, uttered from the tops of the water-plants, 

 seemed sweeter, more refined, and frequently opened with a 

 succession of about four musical, high-pitched notes, after 

 the manner of the Nightingale. The alarm-note was a 

 jarring rattle. The nests were all over water from one to 

 two feet above it, some in the forks of small " salix " 

 saplings, surrounded by sword-grass growing in about six 

 inches of water, others in the broken-down bases of reed- 

 clumps at the edges of clearings in the swamp, in water 

 from three to four feet deep, but not apparently in the dense 

 reed-beds. 



Some nests were built mainly of rotting vegetation, picked 

 up from the refuse floating on the water, and this having been 

 put on wet had become stiff" in drying, and made a wiry 

 framework ; others were of dry soft material with tamarisk 

 '^ fluffs' ornamentation externally ; some were hardly lined 

 at all ; one was beautifully lined with a profusion of large 

 soft feathers of the Water- Rail and Little Bittern, placed 

 loosely around the interior, as in a Swallow's nest. 



