CONTRIBUTIONS TO AN AVIFAUNA OF BADEN. 169 



limited space, and would one bird have been able to feed the 

 whole brood ? I have found this species also at Forchheim, in the 

 Rhine woods. — Mr. E. Barrington tells me that he observed S. 

 orphea in July, 1890, near Karlsruhe.— S. atricapilla and hortemis 

 are found in the proportion of about five to three, the former 

 still increasing ; they generally arrive by the first week in April. 

 The female Blackcap sometimes performs most extraordinary 

 antics and contortions, more so than any other bird I know, and 

 doubtless in order to entice an intruder away from her brood. — A 

 nest of S. nisoria, of which I acquired an egg, was taken in May, 

 1887, in the "Hardwald," and not many hundred yards from the 

 town. 



Regulus cristatus. Wanders through the Hardwald in company 

 with Creepers, Tits, and Nuthatches, but, like the Crested Tit, 

 it never enters the town in winter, as the others do. — I have also 

 noticed R. ignicapillus several times, and have seen a specimen 

 of it, captured after a strong gale, in the centre of the town. 



Phylloscopus rufus. Barer than either trochilus or sibilatrix, 

 the former of which used to be the commonest of the three. 

 Now the balance is in favour of sibilatrix. Why ? 



Hypolais icterina. Throughout the Rhine woods. A nest 

 obtained near Daxlanden was situated about eight feet from the 

 ground, and lined with green grass. The delicate crushed- 

 strawberry tint of the egg fades, unfortunately, very soon. 



Acrocephalus streperus. Plentifully distributed over the Rhine 

 plain, in suitable localities. Numbers build on the River Alb, 

 near Karlsruhe, generally between two to five reeds; often in 

 bushes, brambles, or rank vegetation, the nest almost touching 

 the ground. An author praises the " providential " forethought 

 of the following species, that forbids it to construct its nest too 

 early; but this sort of instinct is hardly more than a habit, 

 sometimes even at fault, as was seen in the spring of 1887, when, 

 during a fortnight of fine weather, the Reed Warblers' nests on 

 the Alb were built unusually early, and were all destroyed by a 

 flood. I have never heard the song of this bird before the 1st 

 of May. The local German expression " to scold like a ' Rohr* 

 spatz ' " (i. e. y a Reed Sparrow) probably has reference to its 

 notes. — Mr. E. Barrington writes that he has obtained a nest of 

 A. turdoides on the same river. — A. phragmitis is rather scarcer 

 than in England. 



