56 



OLIVACEOUS WAKBLEK. 



eagerness, in driving away every rival or feathered 

 intruder from the sanctuary of its abode. Its song is 

 not so unmelodious as that of the Sylvia olivetorum, 

 and is more like that of other members of its family, 

 as >S'. liippolais, the Melodious Willow Wren, or 

 Latham's Pettychaps, of British naturalists. It is also, 

 like the Olive Tree Warbler, very difficult to capture, 

 keeping constantly at the top of the olive trees, hopping 

 and gliding among the foliage, which has the same 

 colour as itself. 



The Olivaceous Warbler builds in the middle of May, 

 in the same situations, and a similar nest to the Olive 

 Tree Warbler. The nest is, however, smaller and less 

 industriously made, though the materials are the same. 

 It lays four or five eggs, pale grey green, without any 

 shining glossy flush, covered with large black or 

 small greenish black spots. 



Brehm, in Badeker's work, remarks of this species: — 

 "It is an inhabitant of Greece, smaller than the Olive 

 Tree Warbler, and of a duller plumage. It builds its 

 nest of strips of inside bark and fibres of roots, with 

 thistle down, and lines it with spiders' web. It lays, 

 beginning of June, five eggs, smaller and duller in 

 colour than those of the Olive Tree Warbler. Ground 

 colour grey white, scarcely at all tinted with reddish, 

 and marked with violet spots, and blackish and brownish 

 points and small dots, sometimes only at the base, but 

 at other times scattered over the whole Q^%.^^ 



The adult male and female have the head and all 

 the upper parts of the body pale greyish brown, with 

 an olive tint, more indistinct on the lower part of the 

 back; a yellowish streak from the nostrils over the 

 eyelids; on the angle of the mouth and chin, some 

 blackish hairs. Wings and tail grejnsh olive broAvn; 



