BONELLI'S WAUBLEB. 155 



half the length of tail; first quill longer than the sixth, and equal to the 

 fifth ; the second longest. Tail brownish grey, with fifteen dark shaded 

 bands crossing it; feet light brown or grey. Length of an adult male sent 

 me by M. E. Verreaux, four inches and a half; carpus to tip two inches 

 and a half. Tail two inches. Tarsus eight tenths of an inch. Female about 



This pretty little Warbler, the congener of our Willow Wren and 

 Chiif ChafT, has a wide range in the south of Europe. It is found in 

 Spain, in the South of France being common in Provence, in Italy, 

 Switzerland, the Tyrol, and Salzbourg. It has occurred in the 

 Crimea, and a single specimen is stated by Gloger to have been 

 captured in Central Germany. It is included in Captain Loche's 

 Catalogue of the Birds of Algeria, and, as Count Miihle remarks, 

 would probably be found farther north, were it not often mistaken 

 for the other Willow Wrens. It passes the winter in Arabia and 

 Egypt. It does not appear to have been found in Greece. Major 

 Irby writes that this bird is "very abundant at Gibraltar, arriving 

 early in April, nesting in fern and bushes about two feet from the 

 ground, leaving in September. Von Heuglin says it appears in Egypt 

 in August and September on its migration. He also found it in 

 Southern Nubia, but it returns to Europe in April. He says it 

 ranges, according to the Berlin Museum, to Senegal. Canon Tristram 

 records it in Palestine, and it ranges in the South of Europe as far 

 as the forty-eighth degree of north latitude. 



Salvadori ("Fauna d'ltalia") thus writes of this bird: — "I have 

 observed^ this species in Tuscany and Piedmont, where it is rather 

 common. In April and May I have seen many of them upon the 

 mountains of Clusone, in the Province of Pinerolo, where they occur 

 singly in the chestnut plantations, as well as among the trees in cul- 

 tivated fields. At intervals they emit a monotonous song, rather 

 sonorous and shrill, which you can hardly believe could proceed from 

 so small a bird. Sometimes you hear a subdued sibillation, like that 

 from the other Warblers of this genus. It makes a nest in the 

 mountains — according to Savi, among the herbs and ferns — having, like 

 the other Willow Warblers, a lateral opening. The nest is made of 

 hay, small roots, and bark, covered externally with dry leaves. The 

 eggs, four or five, are more globose than those of its congeners, 

 white, and thickly covered with liver-coloured points." 



The term Laubsanger, given to this group by the German natu- 

 ralists, refers to their similarity in colour to the foliage of large 

 trees which they affect much more than bushes or shrubs. Bonelli's 



