SUB-ALPINE WABBLEB. 1 & "5' 



barley-fields and grassy plains. We never observed it "^in" higher 

 bushes, forest underwood, or trees. It is very agile, hopping and 

 skipping about among the bushes, seeking for insects, rarely allowing 

 itself to be drawn into hedges. It seldom alights upon the ground, 

 and is always unwilling to leave its favourite places of abode. When 

 it does so its flight is low and short. The call-note is a light cackle. 

 The sojourn of this bird in the Delta in its spring passage is short, at 

 most eight or ten days. I once observed it in the autumn (November 

 10th.) at Kordofan. Whether Curruca passerina of Brehm, with 

 almost black outer tail feathers, belongs to this bird is, I think, 

 doubtful. It ranges in Tripoli (Chambers), Algeria (Loche), Sene- 

 gambia (Blasius and Keyserling), very common in Teneriffe (BoUe); 

 South of Europe — on the banks of the Kur; Syria and Asia Minor." 



The male in breeding plumage has the head, nape, and scapulars 

 of a bluish lead-colour; upper parts of the wing and tail olive brown. 

 The throat, crop, and flanks russet red, more or less strongly marked; 

 middle of the belly whitish, mottled with bluish spots; a white line 

 or moustache from the gape separates the grey of the nape from the 

 red of the throat and crop. Under tail coverts white, shaded with 

 russet; two outer feathers of the tail white on each side above and 

 inside for three parts of their length, the two' following only tipped 

 with white; beak brown, reddish at the base below; iris yellow; legs 

 and feet flesh-coloured. In autumn the upper parts are grey, more 

 or less tinted with olive or russet; inferior parts of a less bright 

 red, clearer on the flanks, and the abdomen whiter. 



The female has the upper parts uniformly olive brown, with a tinge 

 of bluish grey about the head and nape; the under parts much less 

 red than in the male, but in my specimen the colour, which is a 

 faintly reddish white, is more uniformly dispersed. 



The young before the first moult have the superior parts, according 

 to Degland, (whose descriptions are in general most accurate,) of a 

 reddish ash; the inferior parts reddish, or a clear brown, with the 

 middle of the abdomen white. Wings brown, all the coverts being 

 broadly bordered with reddish; tail feathers brown, fringed with 

 reddish ash, the external feather of each side bordered and terminated 

 with whitish ash. In a young male bird sent me by M. Verreaux, 

 the colours are very similar to, but fainter than those of the adult 

 male; the abdomen is more mottled. In none of the specimens is 

 the abdomen of a pure white. 



My figures of this bird are from specimens sent me by M. Verreaux. 

 The egg is from my own collection: it was taken by Dr. Kriiper in 

 Greece. 



