2414 Birds. 



he observes, " how high soever it may be in other matters, is, with respect to habits 

 and field observation, not of the slightest weight : he might have seen the bird, if he 

 had ever looked beyond his cabinet, in most of the gardens about Leyden, where he 

 resides." — (' Field Naturalist's Magazine,' February, 1833, pp. 49 — 51). There is a 

 work on the eggs of Germany and of the neighbouring countries, by Naumann and 

 Buhle, which began to be published at Halle in 1818, and was continued at intervals 

 for a good many years after: it is considered accurate, and of high authority: it was 

 pronounced by Mr. Yarrell (Mag. Nat. Hist. ii. 205) to be the best work on the sub- 

 ject with which he was acquainted, — Mr. Hewitson's undoubtedly superior publication 

 not being then in existence. On the ninth plate of this work there is, among others, 

 a beautifully coloured representation of the egg of the true Sylvia Hippolais, which 

 in appearance agrees most exactly with the description given by Professor Rennie of 

 those which he found at Bonn. As the work of Naumann and Buhle, to which I am 

 alluding, is in all probability rare in this country, and as the Sylvia Hippolais seems 

 to be familiarly known on the Continent, I will endeavour to give the substance in 

 English of the German description which accompanies the plate. 



Name and distinctive marks of the species. Sylvia Hippolais, 'arbour bird,' 

 (gurtenlaubvogel, literally garden foliage bird), ' mocking bird.' A very broadish bill, 

 lead-coloured feet, the plumage above greenish gray, below pale brimstone-colour, the 

 posterior wing-feathers with grayish white edges. Length 6 inches, breadth 9^ inches. 

 Residence : in level tracts, where there are trees with deciduous leaves ; banks of ri- 

 vulets abounding in bushes, also in gardens. Takes its departure early, and returns 

 late.* Food : insects, seldom berries, also ripe cherries. The neat, conspicuously 

 appearing and very skilfully finished nest is placed in the forked branches of lower 

 trees, and on bushes more open than usual ; also on the side branches of thinner 

 trunks of trees, and more seldom on higher and slender branches at a distance from 

 the trunk ; also in gardens, in the tops of plum and other fruit trees, or in copses 

 3 to 15 feet high ; but not in thorns, nor in dead hedges : it is built — in a compact 

 and durable manner — of fine stalks, withered grasses, fibres of bark having the ap- 

 pearance of fine tow, the finer outward peelings of the birch (where these are to be 

 had), webs of insects and chrysalis cases, — all matted, and, as it were, glued together. 

 Bits of cotton, hairs of animals and sewing threads are also often interwoven along 

 with these, and the very deep inside — which has a greatly incurvated wall — is lined 

 with fine panicles of grass, more seldom with hairs and the down of plants, and still 

 seldomer with feathers. The eggs, on account of their ground colour, can never be 

 mistaken : they are somewhat larger than those previously described,f of a beautiful 

 oval, smooth and tender shelled : the ground colour, when the egg is fresh laid, is a 

 beautiful soft rose-red, but it becomes considerably paler during the time of hatching, 

 and still more so in cabinets, where it is entirely changed into a very pale flesh-colour 

 or reddish white : the markings are detached gray, and to a greater extent, brownish 

 black fine little dots, and also detached larger dots — some of them blackish brown or 

 purplish, having exactly the appearance of spots caused by flies (fliegenklexe) ; they 

 are sparingly distributed all over the surface. The number of eggs is four or five in 



* Professor Rennie says that they arrive in Germany about the beginning of May, 

 and depart early in August. 



f Those of the lessor whitethroat (Sylvia curruca). 



