5° GARDEN-WARBLER. 
Mediterranean ; it is, however, locally distributed, and although 
common in Southern Spain, is not known to breed in Sicily or 
Greece, yet it does so in Palestine. On migration it leaves Europe 
by the middle of October, and, passing through Asia Minor and 
Northern Africa, is found in winter down to Cape Colony. LEast- 
ward its range appears to be bounded by the Caspian and the Ural 
Mountains ; but possibly it may extend as far as Omsk, on the 
Irtisch, in Siberia. 
The nest, rather loosely made of grass stems externally, but with 
a well-shaped inner cup of finer materials, is generally placed in low 
brambles, shrubs and ferns; sometimes among peas or in goose- 
berry-bushes in a garden. The 4-5 eggs, laid from May 14th 
onward, are white, marbled and blotched with shades of greenish- 
and buffish-brown; a good deal like one variety of those of the 
Blackcap, but never, as in that species, suffused with a reddish tint : 
they are also on the average a trifle larger and the shell is less 
glossy : measurements ‘75 by 6 in. Incubation lasts 13 days, and 
only one brood is, as a rule, reared in the season. The nestlings 
are fed largely on insects, particularly on the caterpillar of the white 
cabbage-butterfly ; but later, peas, fruit of all kinds and berries, are 
largely consumed. From its partiality to figs this bird has acquired 
the Italian name of Beccafico, which is, however, used as a compre- 
hensive term for many other small species. Its song is continuous 
and mellow, though softer and less rich than that of the Blackcap ; 
the alarm-note being a harsh ¢eck, resembling the sound made by 
knocking two small pebbles together. In its habits the Garden- 
Warbler is rather more shy and skulking than most of its congeners; 
and it appears to be intolerant of rivalry, for it is often scarce in 
those districts where the Blackcap abounds, and common where that 
bird is scarce. 
Adult male in May: entire upper parts olive-brown, with a paler 
eye-streak ; quill-feathers darker brown with narrow whitish tips and 
margins ; under parts mostly buffish-white, purer in the centre of 
the belly, and darker on the flanks ; bill brown, paler at the base ; 
legs and feet lead-colour with yellowish soles to the latter ; irides 
hazel ; eyelids white. Length 5-75 in. ; wing to the tip of the 3rd 
and longest quill 3in. The female is slightly paler. The young 
are rather more greenish-olive than the adults, and have well-defined 
pale margins to the secondaries. 
