Marmora's warbler. 43 



Length of adult male sent me by M. E. Verreaux, five inches 

 and three-tenths; from carpus to tip two inches and three-tenths. 

 Tail two inches; tarsus nine-tenths of an inch. 



This Warbler, though supposed to occur in Africa, 

 has at present a known range limited to Sardinia, Sicily, 

 and the south of France. It is said by Miihle to breed 

 near Palermo; and Thienemann says that it is always 

 found in company with S. provincialis, the Dartford 

 Warbler. It was discovered by Marmora, in 1819, and 

 is not unlike in plumage S. melanocephala, and has 

 the same naked ring round the eyes; it may, however, 

 be distinguished by the specific characters given above ; 

 in addition to which the beak is more slender and weak ; 

 the general colour has a more smoky tinge; the throat 

 is also ash-grey or darker, instead of white, so that the 

 two birds can never be confounded. Of its habits we 

 know very little, and what we do know of them diiFers 

 but slightly from those of the Dartford Warbler; its 

 call-note is said to be a sharper and rougher cry. 



According to Thienemann, its nest and eggs are 

 similar to those of the Dartford Warbler. Degland says 

 it builds in bushes a short distance from the ground, 

 making a deep well-constructed nest, in which it de- 

 posits from four to six eggs, of a dirty white, slightly 

 yellowish, with spots grey and reddish, thicker about 

 the greater end; great diameter sixteen, small twelve 

 millemetres. 



An adult male, sent me by M. E. Verreaux, has all 

 the upper parts of an uniform smoky brown, darker 

 about the eyes. Throat dark ash-grey; belly and flanks 

 pinkish, mottled with grey, approaching to black; pri- 

 maries dark hair brown; tail cuneiform, with the outer 

 quills finely edged with white ; colour of the under parts 



