5504 Birds. 



and in May : they were all males ; but, in company with the second 

 specimen of Sylvia leucomela, I noticed what I considered was a 

 female, which appeared of an obscure brown colour, with some dull 

 white about the head. There were a good many about the rocky bare 

 ground near the edge of the cliffs, under which I dare say they retired 

 at night and in bad weather, for, during winter, T occasionally saw 

 small birds make for the same retreat, which is well sheltered from the 

 cold winds of the north aud west, and in many parts there are also a 

 quantity of small trees and bushes. 



The wheatear (Sylvia cert ant he) is a bird of the migration of which 

 much notice is taken in the South of England, whither it comes north- 

 ward from France, Spain and Africa: we may also suppose that it 

 makes its course to the Crimea about North from Asia Minor, as it has 

 been observed at Smyrna, Trebizond and Erzeroum. One was shot 

 by a friend of mine a few days before the end of March, and I observed 

 a good many about before the middle of April: this, as well as the 

 redstart, appeared to be in pairs ; the male bird would mount in the 

 air, almost like a skylark, uttering its note, which struck me as between 

 that bird and the blackbird : they were rather shy of approach. The 

 wheatear seems partial to hopping about old stone walls and the edges 

 of precipices : it continued common until towards the end of September, 

 usually only two being together, after which I took no notice of it. 

 Feeling sure that the absence of any notes on the breeding of the 

 birds here enumerated will be remarked, I may therefore state that 

 I arrived in and departed from the country just at that particular 

 season, and was therefore unable to make any observations concerning 

 those interesting habits. 



Of the warblers, more particularly so called, I can enumerate but a 

 few as inhabitants of the Crimea, and in order will commence with the 

 great sedge warbler (Sylvia turdoides), which I shot in company with 

 the barred warbler (Sylvia nisoria), on the 10th of May: the latter, 

 however, I had observed by itself on the 2nd (and it was plentiful 

 in the middle of the month), about the brushwood on the hills; 

 it would rise in the air for a short distance, in the manner of 

 the wheatear, singing something like the skylark, which it also did 

 when perched on the top of a thorn or other bush, at which time the 

 crest was distinctly visible. Of three male specimens of this bird shot 

 in May, the colour of the eyes were bright yellow, and not white, as 

 has been described; in fact, so striking was this feature, that, not 

 knowing the bird, I noted it in my journal as "yellow-eyed warbler ;" 

 the legs and feet were clay-yellow, marked with brown. 



