88 WARBLER. 



and walls, in the manner of the Redstart; does not make the least 

 attempt to sing, even in the breeding season. At the end of June, 

 1771, a nest was taken, near the orange-grove, with six young, and 

 supposed to be that of the Nightingale, and nursed as such, all the 

 summer : in autumn five of them died, and one only survived till 

 December. This frequently chirped agreeably, hut did not amount 

 to a song. In autumn these birds appear again in numbers about 

 the garrison, and totally disappear in September : are not to be 

 found in flocks at any time, but straggle about like the Russet 

 Wheat-Ear. In manners it is solitary, always perching on the tops 

 of the shrubs, and spreads the tail erect, by sudden jerks ; has a 

 piping kind of note, which rather seems a call to its companions 

 than a song. Found in the neighbourhood of Tetuan, as frequently 

 as any where, but it is uncertain whether it passes the winter there. 

 It has some resemblance to the Reed Thrush, but is a smaller bird. 

 We first met with a specimen in the Leverian Museum. 



77— FANTAIL WARBLER. 



Sylvia Cisticola, Becfin Cisticole, Tern. Man. Ed. ii. 228 ? 



SIZE of the Common Wren ; length four inches and a half; 

 weight two drachms eight grains. Bill dark brown, slender, longer 

 than in the Yellow Wren, and somewhat incurvated; irides pearl- 

 colour; head and back dusky brown, mixed with dark spots, as in 

 the Skylark; throat white; neck, breast, and sides, testaceous; 

 wings dark brown, short, and hollow ; quills and secondaries nearly 

 of equal lengths ; tail short, and remarkably round at the extremity, 

 the two middle feathers one inch and a half long, the exterior only 

 three quarters of an inch ; on the upper surface the tail is uniform, 

 dark brown, but beneath paler, each feather marked near the end 

 with a broad, round black spot, and the extremity beyond the spot 



