504 



figure the yellowest specimen I possess, for comparison with the Wood- Wren, as it is figured on the 

 same Plate with that species. Irrespective of the difference in colour, the present species has always a 

 shorter and broader wing and a larger first primary than the Wood- Wren. 



This Warbler does not range further north in Europe than into Northern France, but is generally 

 distributed throughout Southern Europe during the summer season, and passes across the Medi- 

 terranean to spend the winter in Africa, where it is met with as far south as Nubia and Senegal. 

 Messrs. Degland and Gerbe say that it breeds near Metz, where M. Meslier de Rocan has killed 

 several, that M. Jules de Lamotte has met with it near Abbeville, and that M. Millet states it to be 

 very common in the woods and forests of the arrondissements of Bauge, Saumur, and Beaupreau, 

 where it arrives about the middle of April and leaves at the end of August ; and they add that 

 they themselves have on several occasions met with it in the woods near Paris, especially in those 

 of Meudon and Clamart. In the south of France it is said to be common. Professor Barboza 

 du Bocage records it from Portugal ; and Dr. E. Eey says (J. f. O. 1872, p. 149) that in Algarve 

 he found it nowhere rare. In Spain it is a tolerably common summer resident. Colonel Irby 

 says (Orn. Str. Gibr. p. 89) that it is numerous near Gibraltar, nesting in the fern in the cork- 

 wood, and he noticed the first arrival on the 1st of April. It is there only a summer visitant, 

 and never occurs in the winter months. 



It is, as above stated, common in the south of France, and passes through Provence in con- 

 siderable numbers on its way to the elevated portions of Switzerland and Savoy, where it breeds, 

 nesting as high up as the Haute Engadine. Naumann (Vog. Deutschl. xiii. p. 421) says that 

 " it occurs in Switzerland — in the cantons of Graubiinden (especially in the Engadine), St. Gallen, 

 Appenzell, less frequently in the canton of Zurich, — and also in Southern Germany, namely in the 

 Tyrol, Salzburg, and a portion of Austria, in Suabia and Bavaria, where it is met with annually." 

 He further remarks that it is gradually extending its range ; for whereas it used to be almost 

 unknown in Wiirtcmberg, it is now quite common in some seasons. In Italy it is common, 

 breeding in the hills; and the same may be said as regards Sicily; but it is by no means common 

 in Sardinia. According to Mr. C. A. Wright it is met with in Malta during the two seasons of 

 passage. Dr. Kriiper says that it is the only summer resident which breeds in the more elevated 

 portions of the mountains of Greece, and is one of the first to arrive ; for it appears before the 

 end of March in the olive-groves in the plains: in Attica he met with the first in 1867 on the 

 4th of April, in 1873 on the 28th of March, and in 1874 on the 12th of April. It remains 

 several weeks in the plains, and then retires to the mountains, the young birds appearing in the 

 plains in July. In Southern and South-eastern Germany it also occurs. The late Mr. E. Seiden- 

 sacher informed me that he only once met with it, near Cilli, in Styria, in April 1858 ; but the 

 Hitter von Tschusi-Schmidhofen writes (J. f. O. 1872, p. 134) that of late years it has become 

 quite common near Maria-hof, in Styria, whence he has received many eggs through the Pfarrer 

 Hanf. He also observed it near Hallein on the 15th August, on passage; but he never found it 

 1 needing in Austria. Messrs. Danford and Harvie-Brown state (Ibis, 1875, p. 308) that there is 

 a specimen in the Klausenburg Museum, which was shot in the Museum garden in May 1873, 

 and it has also been killed on the Strell, in March 1845, by Herr Stetter. It occurs in Turkey, 

 and, according to Professor von Nordmann, has twice been killed on the south coast of the 

 ( 'rimea. 



