THE RUFOUS WARBLERS. 
201 
dodging in and out the side branches in search of insects, 
perching for a moment on the topmost spray ; but before you 
have time to get your binocular on to the bird, the latter 
catches sight of your movement, and diops down into the 
furze as if shot.” 
Hest. — This is a very neatly constructed cup, rather deep, and 
more strongly built to outward appearance than that of most 
Warblers. It is made of fine grass-stalks, very neatly inter- 
twined and supported by a little moss and wool, with the 
grass-stalks sticking out in every direction. The inner lining is 
of finer grass-stems with a little horsehair. 
Eggs. — Four or five in number. The markings partake of 
the character of the Whitethroat’s eggs, but those of the Dart- 
ford Warbler are more regularly and thickly clouded with spots. 
The general type of egg has the ground-colour greenish-white, 
almost hidden by spots of greenish-brown, thickly sprinkled all 
over the egg, though in some cases clouding the larger end. 
The underlying grey markings are also distinct. In the lighter 
type of egg the ground-colour is greenish-white, spotted with 
greenish-brown all over the egg, but more thickly at the larger 
end, where the grey underlying markings are distinct. Axis, 
07-075 inch; diam., o - 5. 
THE RUFOUS WARBLERS. GENUS AEDON 
Aedon, Boie, Isis, 1826, p. 972. 
Type, A, galactodes (Ternm.). 
The Rufous Warblers, formerly named, by a curious mis- 
apprehension of the habits of the birds, the Rufous “ Sedge- 
Warblers,” are two in number, and they are aptly called by 
Salvadori the Nightingale of Africa and the Nightingale of the 
Levant. The first is a bird of the Mediterranean countries, 
while the second, Aedon familiaris , is the Eastern representa- 
tive of the genus, and instead of migrating north and south 
like A. galactodes , its movements are east and west, as it is said 
to occur in Italy, which brings its range across that of A. galac- 
todes. Count Salvadori, however, does not regard its occur- 
rence in Italy as completely proved. 
The Rufous Warblers are both species of somewhat large size, 
