892 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXVIII. 
All these belong to the typical race and I have seen no specimens of the eastern 
race affinis from Mesopotamia, but Sharpe identified one from Bushire as belong- 
ing to this form. 
92. Hume's Lesser Whitethroat. Sylvia althza. 
Sylvia althea, Hume (Stray Feathers, 7, p. 60, 1878—Plains of 
India.) 
Zarudny gives this as a winter visitor and: passage migrant in small numbers 
in the Karun district and as a common breeding species in the Zagros. We have 
no skins or records of it. If Zarudny is correct this is a considerable extension 
of this bird’s range westward. 
93. Desert Warbler. Sylvia nana. 
Sylvia nana nana, Hemp. and Ehr. (Symb. Phys. folio ec., 1833— 
Tor in Sinai). 
Buxton met with this species at Kumait on November 13th, frequenting saline 
desert where there are scattered bushes of Sweda and Lycium and no other vegeta- 
tion, and hardly any other birds. There are one or two other records which 
might belong to this species. Woosnam obtained it in the Shuteit R. on March 
26th. Its exact status is not known. 
Zavudny gives it as a common winter visitor in the Karun district and as 
breeding in the Zagros in small numbers. 
94. Menetries’ Warbler. Sylvia, mystacea. 
Sylvia mystacea, Ménétr. (Cat. Rais. Caucas. p. 34, 1832—Saliane on R. 
Kur. Caucasus). 
This species like several others is only absent from Mesopotamia during the 
coldest part of the winter ; it disappears about the middle of December and 
returns at the end of February and early part of March. ‘Thus Buxton noted it 
at Amara up to December 15th and not again till February 20th, while on March 
13th there was a sudden influx. Pitman records it as passing through Feluja 
April 14th—2Ist. 
Probably it is only in favoured places that it can be found as late as December— 
as Pitman noticed that in the Adhaim area in November it was very much scarcer 
than in the previous month. It is a bird of gardens, cultivation, scrub, etc., and 
is particularly fond of tamarisk and acacia (Prosopis). I found it in the non- 
breeding season a shy and skulking bird, an adept at hiding in a bushy date palm 
and slipping out unseen onthe far side, repeating the same performance in 
each bush it flew to. 
It nests throughout our area in suitable localities at Jeast as far north as Tekrit. 
The nest is situated in the sort of position chosen by the Common Whitethroat, 
inscrub, pomegranate, thistles, acacia, etc., and usually one to two feet from the 
ground. The nest is made of grass stems interwoven with “ goose grass ”’, lined 
with finer grass stems, also horse hair ; it is a neat, though somewhat loosely 
constructed, deep cup. At Ahwaz it is stated to breed early in April, but in 
most places the end of the month would seem to be the more usual date for fresh 
eggs, while these have been taken as late as June 6th. Mr. Jourdain, who received 
a considerable number of clutches from our area, informs me that none exceeded 
four, and in some cases three seemed to be a full clutch, his earliest nest was 
found on April 9th. There is a considerable variation in coloring ; the average 
size of 40 eggs was 17°0—13°1 mm. 
Twenty-nine specimens examined : Adhaim, 4-10-17, 3-11-17 (three), 15-11-17 
(C. R. P.) ; Sheik Saad, 15-9-17, —21-3-17, 24-3-17 ; Shaiba, 23-9-16 (P. Z.C. and 
R.E. C.); ¢ , Amara, 14-6-18, 24-4-18, 23-9-18 (two), 27-3-18, 16-4-18, 3-19, 1-11-17, 
2, 13-3-18; 9 ,Kumait, 16-11-17, ¢, 28-2-18; 2, Baghdad, 5-10-17; ¢, Gurmat 
