THE RUFOUS WARBLERS. 
203 
Adult Female. — Similar in colour to the male. Total length, 
6 '5 inches ; wing, 3-4. 
Range in Great Britain. — A rare and accidental visitor from the 
south, having occurred on three occasions only, and always in 
the autumn. One was shot by the late Mr. Swaysland, in Sep- 
tember, 1854, near Brighton ; a second specimen, now in the 
British Museum, was procured in a half-starved condition, and 
without its tail, at the Start, in Devonshire, by Mr. W. D. 
Llewellyn, in September, 1869; while the third instance oc- 
curred near Slapton, in Devonshire, in October, 1876, and is 
vouched for by a well-known naturalist, Mr. H. Nicholls. 
Range outside the British Islands. — The Rufous Warbler is found 
in most of the Mediterranean countries from Morocco to Pales- 
tine, and it winters to the southward in Abyssinia. In summer 
it visits the southern parts of Spain and Portugal, and, more 
rarely, Italy. It is also found in Palestine in summer as far as 
Beyrout, but to the north of the Lebanon only the Grey-backed 
Warbler, A. familiaris, occurs, and this species takes the place 
of A. galactodes, from Greece, eastwards through Asia Minor 
and the Caucasus to Turkestan, wintering in N.W. India and 
probably in Arabia, as it is known to extend to Eastern Africa. 
Hahits. — In some works this species is described as a very 
wary bird, while in others its tameness is referred to as remark- 
able. Mr. Dixon, in Algeria, had the greatest difficulty in pro- 
curing a specimen, while Canon Tristram speaks of it as “seen 
everywhere” in Palestine, “on upland and lowland alike, ex- 
panding, jerking, and fanning its tail, with its conspicuous white 
bar, on the bare fig-trees, among olives, on the top of any little 
shrub, or on the pathway in front of the horseman, hopping 
fearlessly on at his close approach.” In Southern Spain, 
according to Mr. Howard Saunders, it is not at all shy, until 
it becomes conscious of being watched and followed ; it is 
very lively in its habits, constantly flirting its tail, whence the 
Spanish name of “ Alza-cola ” and “ Alza-rabo.” 
Rest. — Mr. Osbert Salvin has given the following account of 
the birds, as observed by him in Algeria in 1858: “Near 
Ain Djendeli I used frequently to notice the present species 
about the trees that overhung the dry, stony watercourses that 
run from the hills into the plain beneath. We never found a 
