BARRED WARBLER. 
Curruca nisoria. 
Le Bec-fin rayée. 
Tue principal feature peculiar to this rare species consists in its comparatively large size to that of the 
Warblers in general, in its lengthened and elegant form, and in its grey tone of colouring, relieved by 
numerous transverse bars of black and white. In assigning it to the genus Curruca, which we do with some 
hesitation, we are influenced by the fact that of all the groups of the Sy/viade, it is to this that it makes the 
nearest approach. It is not a native of the British Isles, nor, as far as we are aware, has it been found in 
France or Holland; it is, however, tolerably common in many parts of Germany. Never having, ourselves, 
seen this bird in a state of nature, we prefer quoting the observations of M. Temminck, who informs us that 
it inhabits bushes and thickets, is abundantly spread throughout the North, occurring in Sweden and in the 
provinces of the North of Germany and Hungary: it is of more rare occurrence in Austria, and it is also 
found in Lombardy. 
Its food consists of insects, caterpillars, worms, and berries. 
It builds its nest in tufted hawthorn bushes, lays four or five eggs, of a whitish colour blotched with purplish 
ash or pure ash colour. 
M. Temminck describes the male and female as offering considerable difference in the marking of the plu- 
mage. In the specimens that have fallen under our notice this difference has appeared but very trifling. It 
may be best, however, to give the colouring from M. Temminck. That of the adult male is as follows : 
Head, cheek, back of the neck, and back, of a deep grey, as are also the scapulars and rump, but all the 
feathers of these parts are terminated by a small bar of brown and another of white ; the wings are of a 
lighter ash colour, the outer feather having a large blotch of white at its extremity ;. this blotch of white ‘is 
not so apparent on the second, and still less so on the third and fourth feathers: all the under surface is 
whitish transversely barred with ashy grey ; under tail-coverts are grey with large white edges ; beak brown; 
irides brilliant yellow. 
The female has the upper surface of an ash colour, clouded with brown but: without transverse bars ; the 
flanks slightly clouded with reddish; the white at the extremity of the tail is more circumscribed and less 
pure. 
The young before their first moult have the whole of the body marked with minute transverse rays of ashy 
brown ; irides brown. 
The Plate represents a male of the natural size. 
