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the inside and lining being usually Coot's or Duck's feathers, mingled with wool or camel's hair ; 

 and in nine cases out of ten, a small piece of serpent's skin is loosely placed in the bottom of the 

 nest. I have since observed other instances of serpent's skin similarly used. As to what object 

 the bird has in view in employing such material, I can form no conjecture. 



" The number of eggs varies from three to five. They are laid about the third week in May. 



" In its habits the bird is shy, and is careful to elude observation. When it alights on a 

 twig, it expands its tail, and shows the peculiar markings which terminate each feather. While 

 holding it thus extended, it raises it once or twice, somewhat after the manner of Copsijchus 

 macrurus. I may here remark that the eggs of Aedon galactodes are not to be distinguished 

 from those of Anthus rufescens, a bird equally or perhaps more common in the same districts in 

 the Atlas ; so that eggs ascribed to this species from that country, without undeniable proof that 

 they are what they profess to be, can only be received with great doubt, and are in fact valueless to 

 a collection. Among the Arabs of Djendeli this bird is known as ' el Hamara' (the red bird)." 



Dr. von Heuglin says (Ibis, 1869, p. 85) that "in North-east Africa it lives in gardens, 

 reed-thickets, cotton-fields, mimosa-woods, hedges and ditches, and usually shows less preference 

 than the Nightingale for very shady and dense underwood ; it also differs from the Nightingale 

 by its song and call-note and in its general behaviour. It pleases rather by its rather shy and 

 yet lively nature, which somewhat reminds one of that of a Thrush. It often flutters quickly 

 from twig to twig, up to the very top of a tree, constantly moving, spreading, and closing its 

 tail ; soon it is seen running about briskly upon the bare ground, or under the bushes and dry 

 grass, hunting for worms and caterpillars ; suddenly it emits a Thrush-like cry of fear and flies 

 noisily into the bushes. The birds of each pair keep together ; the breeding-business begins as 

 early as the end of April. As to its nesting-place, the bird is not particular ; and we found the 

 nest in pomegranate-, cotton-, and tamarisk-bushes, upon low mimosa-trees half-concealed in 

 grass, and in thin hedges, in gardens, and tbe immediate vicinity of buildings and the busy noise 

 of men, as well as in deserted, solitary places, or in quiet mimosa-groves. It resembles that of 

 the Blackcap, consists of fine grass, rootlets, horsehair, wool, and so forth ; occasionally, but 

 rarely, small twigs are interwoven in it. The structure is slight and not very thick or artificial. 

 Tbe bird does not appear to lay more than four eggs ; and I believe that it usually makes two 

 nests, even when the first is not disturbed." 



I quote above Mr. Salvin's description of the nest of the present species, so need add no 

 further details, except to remark that Canon Tristram observes that in Palestine, as in Algeria, 

 all the nests had a piece of serpent's skin in the interior. Eggs of the Rufous Warbler in my 

 collection from Spain are delicate french-white, or white with a faint blue-green tinge in colour, 

 marked with faint greyish brown underlying shell-spots, and dark brown overlying surface- 

 markings, these being tolerably scattered over the surface of the shell, and, as a rule, rather 

 small. In size these eggs average |-f by \ % inch, and in general character and colour so closely 

 resemble the eggs of Anthus campestris that it is impossible to separate them if mixed up 

 together. Canon Tristram says (I. c.) that " eggs of this species from Palestine are very much 

 more delicately and sparsely spotted than those of Africa, and, arranged together with them, 

 would at first sight be pronounced to be distinct. Yet we took perhaps twenty nests in each 

 country, all of them indisputably identified, and the distinction holds uniformly true." This is 



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