50 OLIVE TREE WARBLER. 



compressed sideways anteriorly, tlie tip liaving a tooth-like or 

 notched curve. 



Length sis inches five lines; wings from carpus to tip three 

 inches and two lines; tail two inches and a half; beak from gape 

 nine lines and three-quarters, breadth of it at angle four lines; 

 middle toe five lines, claw of the same two lines and a half; hind 

 toe three lines and a quarter, claw of the same three lines. — 



SCHLEGEL. 



This elegant sjDecies was discovered by our lamented 

 countryman Strickland^ in tlie island of Zante^, in 1836, 

 and described and figured in Gould's "Birds of Euroj)e." 



Count Miilile, in liis monograpli of the European 

 SylviadcB, has placed this bird S. elaica, and S. hy- 

 polais, (Latham's Pettychaps,) in a distinct section, 

 namely that of Polyglottce, or Mockers, in consequence 

 of the notes of some other birds being discovered in 

 their song. Temminck placed S. olivetorum among his 

 Eiverains, and Keyserling and Blasius, and Schlegel, 

 among the Salicaria. But Count Miihle remarks that 

 it must be without hesitation placed near S. hypolais, 

 the Hippolais polyglottcB of Selys-Longchamps, Gerbe, 

 and Degland, (Latham's Pettychaps,) and consequently 

 included in this group, forming, with S. icterina, the 

 genus Hippolais of Gerbe. 



Sylvia olivetorum has at present only one Euro|)ean 

 locality, that of the olive plantations of Greece, where, 

 however, it appears to be by no means rare. In the second 

 volume of Naumannia, part I, page 77, it is included 

 in a list of birds observed in the neighbourhood of 

 Tangiers, and is said to breed there. According to 

 Lindermayer it appears in Greece at the end of April 

 and the beginning of May, and leaves again early in 

 August. It has been conjectured by Baldamus, in Nau- 

 mannia, part II for 1853, page 166, that this bird. 



