414 



" frequent in spring in the wooded districts. Two specimens out of five agree with Hemprich & 

 Ehrenb.'s variety helena : the other three do not ; but in one instance the male is var. helena. 

 The female shot with him off the nest is of the ordinary European type." In North-east Africa 

 it is rare. Von Heuglin says that it visits Egypt and Nubia in the autumn, and he obtained a 

 specimen near the Pyramids ; and I possess a specimen obtained in Egypt. It is, however, 

 commoner in North-western Africa, and breeds in Algeria, having been also met with in 

 Morocco ; and I possess specimens from Tangier. Major Loche says that it is found in all the 

 provinces of Algeria. Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., met with it at Tibrem ; and Mr. Osbert Salvin 

 says (Ibis, 1859, p. 306) that it "is a tolerably common bird about the wooded hill-sides of 

 Djendeli, where it usually breeds, though we sometimes obtained nests from the tamarisk-trees 

 in the plain. Its nest much resembles that of the common Blackcap (S. atricapilla), but differs 

 in being more compact and thicker ; the position in the branch of the tree selected is usually 

 similar. The note of this bird is pleasing, but hardly so much so as to entitle it to the name of 

 the Orphean Warbler." 



To the eastward the present species, or rather a form having a larger and longer bill, and 

 being, if any thing, a trifle larger in size, extends through Persia into India. I have unfor- 

 tunately been unable to examine a sufficiently large series of eastern specimens to decide 

 whether two distinct species of Orphean Warbler exist. That the eastern form or race having 

 the large bill does not extend westward into my limits appears to be certain ; or at least in Asia 

 Minor specimens occur which are so exactly intermediate that it is impossible to say to which 

 they are referable ; for though the bills are longer than in examples from Spain and Tangier, 

 they are much shorter than the bills of others from Turkestan and Persia. If a Turkestan 

 example be compared with one from Spain it appears as if there were two very clearly distin- 

 guishable forms ; but a series of specimens from intermediate localities shows that there is a 

 regular gradation from the one to the other, and it is impossible to define where the one form 

 ends and the other begins ; hence, without having a larger series from Asia, I cannot do other- 

 wise than consider that there is but one species of Orphean Warbler. Should, however, further 

 investigation tend to show that the eastern bird is fairly divisible from our European Sylvia 

 orphea, it will, I consider, stand as Sylvia crassirostris, Riipp., with C. orphea, var. Helena, Ehr., 

 Sylvia jerdoni, Blyth, and Artamus cucullatus, Nicholson, as synonyms. Mr. W. T. Blanford 

 examined the type of S. crassirostris, and considers that it is identical with Indian examples ; 

 and I examined Ehrenberg's type of Curruca orphea, var. helena, in the Berlin Museum when 

 there in company with that gentleman, and we agreed in considering it identical with eastern 

 specimens. 



Mr. Blanford found the Orphean Warbler in Southern Persia at a considerable elevation, 

 and says that it evidently breeds there ; but neither De Filippi nor Menetries records it from 

 Northern Persia or the adjoining countries; but Messrs. Dickson and Ross shot one in the 

 Owaniyeh valley, on the Zebel mountains, on the 5th May, 1843. Severtzoff says that it occurs 

 in Turkestan, and breeds in the north-western portion of that country, near Karatau, the river 

 Aris, Kalles, Chir-chik, and the Syr-Darja. It breeds at an altitude of from 4000 to 8000 feet 

 in the larch- and apple-districts, but during migration is found in the steppes and meadows at 

 an altitude of from 3000 to 4000 feet. In India it is a cold-weather visitant. I have examined 



