66 



directly I picked it up I recognized it to be Loche's Sylvia deserti, and had no trouble in 

 identifying it, as it has been so well figured by Loche in the ' Revue et Mag. de Zool.' This bird 

 is essentially a desert-frequenter, and is generally distributed throughout the desert-regions 

 above described; but is nowhere numerous, and is not easily observed owing to its unobtrusive 

 habits. Its song is pleasing, but low-toned and somewhat AVhitethroat-like. I have observed 

 the male when greatly excited rise singing in the air, and drop again into the dense bushwood. 



" The nest differs considerably from that of all the true Sylvice ; I found several in the 

 desert thickets, but all were empty, except one, in which I was fortunate enough to find two 

 fresh eggs. The nest resembles that of the Reed-Warbler (Acrocephalus streperus), and is of an 

 elongate purse-shape, open, and carefully lined with woollen substances." He does not give me 

 any description of the eggs, which are stated by Loche to be grey with a greenish tinge, covered 

 with pale spots, which are only slightly darker than the ground-colour. 



Von Heuglin (Orn. N.O.-Afr. p. 307) met with this bird between the months of October 

 and December on the Somali coast near the harbours of Berbera, Med, Lasgori, and Bender- 

 Quam, where it was not rare, frequenting the lowlands overgrown with desert-grass (halfa) near 

 the shore. Hemprich and Ehrenberg first discovered it near Tor in Arabia Petrsea, and 

 subsequently met with it at Djeddah. Dr. Kaiser does not include it in his list of the birds of 

 the peninsula of Sinai ; but the Rev. F. K. Holland obtained it at Wady Feiran. 



I give above some notes respecting the habits of the present species as observed by 

 Dr. Koenig ; and Von Heuglin (I. c.) says that he found it frequenting dry and arid localities 

 in dense salt-plain copses, and remarks that in its habits and note it greatly resembled Drymceca, 

 and that it was very shy and restless. It flies very swiftly, but not at any great height above 

 the ground, and males may often be seen singing, perched on the top of a grass-stem or on a 

 low acacia-bush or a soda-plant. The song is very powerful, melodious, and rich in tone, and 

 sounds doubly pleasant when heard in the sterile desert. 



Severtzoff met with it in the desert districts of Turkestan, where, he says, it inhabited the 

 dry arid localities covered with bushes of Haloxylon ammodendron or Atraphaxis, where it 

 runs about on the ground and picks up small insects ; and in Transcaspia Mr. Zarudny found it 

 sporadically in all parts of the sandy deserts, frequenting the young tamarisk and " djousgoune " 

 woods, and the saxaul bushes, but it avoids the forests composed only of saxaul. It is also 

 common in the clayey plains covered with bushes in the Atek oasis. Near Dorte-Koyou he saw 

 young birds, which had just left the nest, on the 19th May. 



Mr. Zarudny, who found it common in the Kara-Koum desert, in the saxaul- and tamarisk- 

 groves, in sandy and argillaceous places, writes (Ois. Contr. Transcasp. p. 43) that " on the 

 23rd June he found in the sandy country near Kizil-Arvad a nest containing three well-grown 

 young. The nest was placed under the shade of a tamarisk amongst the branches, and in form 

 resembles those of the Calamoherpidse. The principal materials of the nest are the fine green 

 twigs of the tamarisk, those on the outside being finer and softer, and being green it is difficult 

 to see the nest amongst the bush-verdure ; mixed with the other materials there is a good deal 

 of vegetable-down, spiders' webs, silk of butterfly-cocoons, and of Microgaster, sp."?; the walls 

 of the opening are covered with vegetable filaments, which fall down and form the bed." 

 Col. Prjevalsky described the nest and eggs from Ala-shan ; but Mr. Fleske says that it proved 



