52 
British Birds. 
from England and one from Ireland. The most recent occurrence was on the 27th 
of August, 1897, when the Rev. H. H. Slater shot an adult female of this Warbler 
on the coast of Norfolk, and as the bird had evidently bred during the past season, 
he thinks that the species may yet be found nesting in the eastern counties of 
England. From Central Europe to Central Asia the Barred Warbler is a nesting 
bird, and it reaches Denmark and Southern Sweden, but does not breed apparently 
west of the Rhine. It winters in North-eastern Africa and along the Persian Gulf. 
In habits the Barred Warbler resembles our Whitethroats, and is a very shy and 
skulking bird. It builds a more substantial nest than the last-named birds, of dried 
grass-stalks and roots mixed with plants, thistle-down and wool, and neatly lined 
with horse-hair and fine roots. The eggs are from four to six in number, creamy- 
white or light olive, slightly 
spotted with greenish-brown, 
the spots being often so 
faintly indicated as to appear 
almost obsolete. 
The Barred Warbler is a 
little larger than the White- 
throat and is of a greyish- 
brown colour above, greyish- 
white below, with cross-bars 
of grey. The young are 
more uniform brown, with 
the breast and sides of the 
body ochreous-buff, and 
there are no bars on the 
under-surface. 
The Whitethroat 
(Sylvia sylvia ). This species 
is more rufous than the Barred Warbler or the Lesser Whitethroat, and has pale 
chestnut edges to the wing-coverts and quills. Another character by which even 
the young birds can be distinguished as well as the old, is by the small size of the 
first or little ‘ bastard ’ quill, which never reaches beyond the end of the primary- 
coverts. The colour of the male Whitethroat is greyish-brown and the head is ashy- 
grey, contrasting with the back. The tail is darker and has the outer feathers edged 
with white while the chestnut edges to the wing-feathers are very conspicuous; the 
under-surface is white, with a pinkish shade on the breast. The female is browner 
than the male and is whiter underneath, with the pink shade less evident. In winter 
this pink shade entirely disappears, and the head is also brown like the back. The 
young birds are browner than the adults, with brown heads and a tint of sandy- 
buff colour over the lower throat, breast and side of the body. 
The Whitethroat. 
The Lesser Whitethroat. 
