146 
SYLVIIN^. MELIZOPILUS. 
MufFet. Muftie. Charlie-muftis. Beardie. Whattie. Whishey. 
Blethering Tam. 
Sylvia cinerea, Lath. Ind. Orn, i. 514. — Sylvia cinerea, 
Temm. Man. d’Ornith. i. 207. — Sylvia cinerea, White- throated 
Warbler, or White-throat, MacGillivray, Brit. Birds, ii. 350. 
81. Sylvia garrula. White-breasted Warbler. 
Male with the feet bluish-grey ; the upper parts brownish- 
grey, the head dark ash-grey, the wings and tail dusky, the 
secondaries edged with light grey, the lateral tail-feathers 
nearly white ; lower parts white, the breast tinged with red, 
the sides with grey. Young like the female. 
MpIp fi-l R 9 8 9 1 0 _e _2 
male, O;^-, O, 5^5, y^, y^-, y^. 
Although Sylvia hortensisy cinerea, and garrulay are often 
confounded by students, they may very readily be distinguished 
by attending to the specific characters given above. The pre- 
sent species, which arrives and departs about the same periods 
as the rest, is very uncommon in the south of Scotland, and 
less common than S. cinerea in any part of England. It feeds 
on insects, larvm, and small fruits ; frequents gardens, hedges, 
and thickets ; is extremely active and shy ; and has a short, 
not unpleasant warble. The nest, which is placed among 
briars, or among the herbage, is composed of stems and leaves 
of slender grasses, rather loosely interwoven, with a lining of 
fine straws, fibrous roots, and hair. The eggs, usually five, 
are white or greyish- white, spotted and patched with light | 
grey and brown ; their length eight -twelfths, their breadth six- 1 
twelfths. I 
Lesser White-throat. Babillard. Babbling Warbler. 
Motacilla garrula, Linn. Fauna Suec. 254. — Sylvia Curruca, 
Temm. Man, d’Ornith. i. 209. — Sylvia garrula. White-breasted j 
Warbler, MacGillivray, Brit. Birds, ii. 367. ' 
1 
GENUS XLV. MELIZOPHILUS. FURZELING. 
The only species of which this genus is composed differs jj 
little from the Sylvias in form and habits, but has the tail :j 
remarkably elongated. ■ 
Bill short, slender, broader than high at the base, com- 
pressed toward the end ; upper mandible with its dorsal line f 
convex toward the tip, which is acute, the notches very small ; |! 
lower mandible with the edges a little inflected, the tip acute. ■ 
