WARBLERS. 



5°i 



Savi's Warbler. 



upper-parts uniformly dark olive-brown with a scarcely perceptible eyestripe, the 

 under-parts being greyish brown, shading into white on the throat and belly. 



One of the rarer and more interesting of European warblers is 

 the little obscurely coloured bird known as Savi's warbler (L. 

 luscinoides), which nests in Holland, building a nest of blades of dry sedge firmly 

 interwoven, which cannot well be mistaken for that of any other bird. The eggs 

 are white, sprinkled with ashy brown spots. In the Rhone marshes this bird may 

 be observed actively running up and down the reeds, occasionally uttering a curious 

 cry which has been compared to that of a tree-frog. The male has the upper-parts 

 uniform russet-brown, and the under-parts are pale buffish brown, shading into 

 nearly white on the centre of the throat and belly. 



Cettian 

 Warblers. 



SEDUE-WAKBLER, CETTl'S WARBLER, AND FAN-TAIL WARBLER (h liat. size). 



Cetti's warbler {Bradypterus cettii) may be taken as the best 

 known European representative of another large group of genera 

 differing from all the foregoing in having only ten (in place of twelve) tail- 

 feathers. As the number of these genera is far too large to be even mentioned 

 here, it will suffice to say that Cetti'.s warbler holds a high position among the 

 song-birds of Southern Europe, and that it passes the summer in the Mediterranean 

 region, inhabiting close and impenetrable covert during its summer sojourn. It 

 builds its nest of dry stems and blades of grass in the neighbourhood of water. 

 The eggs are brilliant red, and without any spots. In some parts of its range 



