Although a member of the same family as the last two species, this bird is much more local. It is not until the end of April that he reaches our shores and his clear and melodious little song, which may be syllabled as “chit, chit, chit, chit, tri-tr-tr-tre,” can be heard. His favourite haunts are suitable woods where large timber, especially beech, abound. Here he may be seen as, with the restless activity so characteristic of his family, he searches among the upper branches of the trees for those insects which, with berries of all kinds, form his staple food.
At the foot of some beech-tree, on the ground, or more rarely in some tangled thicket, the nest is built and well concealed by the use of materials similar to the surroundings among which it is placed. It is lined with grass and horsehair, but feathers, so freely used by the Chiffchaff and Willow Wren, are never found. The eggs are white, very thickly and uniformly mottled with dark red. After the young are hatched it becomes silent, and leaves us early in September.
The adult has the upper parts of a bright yellowish green, with a characteristic yellow streak above and behind the eye. The wings are brown edged with yellowish green. Throat and breast sulphur yellow, rest of under parts white. Bill and legs brown. Length 5·2 in.; wing 3·1 in. The larger size and brighter coloration are distinctive of this species.
It is a local bird, but may be found in suitable spots throughout the United Kingdom. In the north, however, it becomes rarer.
THE RUFOUS WARBLER
Aedon galactodes (Temminck)
This handsome species is only a summer migrant to the South of Spain, and the few that have occurred in England are merely stragglers carried out of their course. It has been taken in Sussex and once in Devon, in all cases during the autumn.
It is a conspicuous bird, like a large pale-coloured Nightingale, and may be recognised by its fan-shaped tail with black subterminal spots and white tips. Length 6·5 in.; wing 3·5 in.
RADDE’S BUSH WARBLER
Lusciniola schwarzi (Radde)
This species, which breeds in North-Eastern Siberia and migrates in winter to China and Burma, has only once been obtained in this country, namely in October 1898, by Mr. Haigh, on the Lincolnshire side of the Humber. Mr. Haigh’s attention was drawn to it by the loud and powerful note. The general colour above is olive brown, tinged with tawny on the rump. Under parts yellowish white. There is a broad white superciliary stripe, which ends abruptly in a manner characteristic of this species. Length 5·5 in.; wing 2·45 in.