26 FANTAIL WARBLER. 



I copy the following from Mr. Savile Reid's notes from Gibraltar: 

 — " S. cisticola is very common about the Guaclaranque Valley, and 

 among the hills about San Roque and Algesiras. Its loud harsh 

 notes are to be heard on all sides during the winter and spring. It 

 breeds in considerable numbers near the mouth of the Guadaranque. 

 I saw a beautiful nest with four eggs brought in from there by 

 Major Irby on the 18th. of April, 1872. On the 28th. Jose got me 

 a nest from which the young birds had recently flown. It was not 

 so neatly made and sewn to the grass steins as Major Irby's." 



"May 8th., 1873. The first brood of this little bird appears to 

 have already left the nest. On the 4th. of May I saw a promising 

 family of five or six little ones, attended by their anxious parents, in 

 a field of barley near the first river. I have not received any nests 

 or eggs this spring. They breed in marshy spots beyond the first 

 river ferry, which have hitherto been too wet to examine." 



Major Irby also writes from the same place, — "Resident and abun- 

 dant, breeding twice a year." 



I quote the following from Von Heuglin's "Vogel Nord-Ost 

 Africas:" — "This is an accidental bird in Egypt, Nubia, and the 

 north of Arabia; it goes southwards as far as Habesch, even to 

 Senaar and the Lower Abiad. Generally these lively and elegant 

 little birds are met with in pairs. They live in clover and wheat- 

 fields, in arundo groves, on meadows, in acacia and date trees, es- 

 pecially if these are growing among thick plants and grass away from 

 cultivated land on the borders of the wilderness. Often several pairs 

 nest in a small space, which they seldom leave. Though not shy, 

 our little bird leads a rather retired life. It keeps chiefly to bushes 

 and grain plants which grow low. It hops and perches here and 

 there, constantly backwards and forwards in the manner of the Reed 

 Warbler, and not seldom comes down to the ground, where it knows 

 very well how to run nimbly about on the grass. The male shows 

 itself at times on a projecting twig or isolated blade of grass, and 

 sends forth its somewhat buzzing song. 



"In Lower Egypt it nests in March, when the males hover about 

 the breeding-place, frequently singing as they rise like other Warblers. 

 They also flutter backwards and forwards, uttering an alarm-note, very 

 loud and wooden, like the Wall Lizard. 



"My experience does not bear out some of the accounts of other 

 observers. By Savi and Passler this bird is said to build so peculiar 

 a nest that it can be mistaken for no other. Their description is, 

 'Reed-stalks and sedgy leaves, closely interwoven, the leaves bored 

 through the centres with the beak, and sewn together with silk fibre 



