52 BARRED WARBLER. 
September 8th, 1896. In Ireland, the late Dr. Birkett obtained one 
at Belmullet, co. Mayo, on September 24th, 1884, and another, 
taken at Rockabill light on September 25th, 1896, was sent to 
Mr. R. M. Barrington in the flesh. 
The Barred Warbler is a summer visitor to suitable localities in 
the south of Sweden, Denmark, Germany east of the Rhine valley 
—especially East Prussia, and Central Europe generally ; while in 
the Mediterranean Nice is its western limit on migration, and in 
Italy it appears to be restricted to the northern and north-eastern 
provinces. It also nests in Bulgaria, Turkey, Southern Russia, 
Persia and Turkestan ; in the latter at an altitude of 6,000 and 
even up to 10,000 feet. In October or November it leaves Europe, 
and probably winters in Central and North-Eastern Africa, having 
been met with in Nubia and Northern Sennaar, among thorn-hedges 
and thickets along the Nile. 
Towards the end of May the nest, which is more neatly and 
firmly constructed than is usual among the Warblers, is placed in a 
bush, or on the branch of a tree near the ground, in a plantation ; 
occasionally, however, at the height of some twenty-five feet. The 
eggs, generally 5 in number, are buffish-white marbled with grey, 
not unlike those of the Grey Wagtail: measurements ‘85 by ‘62 in. 
Only one brood is reared in the season. The food is principally 
insects, but in summer and autumn fruit and wild berries are freely 
eaten. The song is said to be little inferior to that of the Garden- 
Warbler ; the cal! is a sharp che& and the alarm-note a rattling rhar. 
Plantations, thickets and thorn-growth are favourite resorts. 
Adult male in spring : upper parts ashy-grey, brighter on the head 
and rump, browner on the wings; upper tail-coverts barred with 
dark slate and white ; upper wing-coverts slightly barred and tipped 
wita white ; inner secondaries with broad white tips; tail-feathers 
tipped and margined on the inner webs with white, except the two 
central ones, which are ashy grey with faint darker bars; under 
parts greyish-white with numerous grey transverse bars, deeper on 
the flanks; axillaries, under wing- and under tail-coverts mottled 
white and grey; bill brown, paler at the base; legs and feet 
brownish ; iris pale yellow. Length 6°5 in.; wing 3:4 in. Female: 
browner and less barred. At first the young bird is hardly barred 
at all, and much resembles a large Garden-Warbler with unusually 
pale tips to the flight-feathers ; but subsequently bars appear on the 
buffish flanks and under tail-coverts, as well as on the rump, the 
breast remaining dull white till the spring. 
