from others. Nightingales could often be seen on the roadsides, and were wonderfully tame.
Sylvia cinerea.—Not very common.
S. atricapilla.—In the woods and Casino gardens, &c. The song of some birds seemed exceptionally fine and powerful.
S. hortensis.[1]—Common in the woods, and noticed on the wooded slopes. In fine rich song.
Regulus cristatus.—Appeared to be tolerably common in spruce firs.
R. ignicapillus.—I had a good view of a bright male in a spruce by the side of the road passing through the Forest of Ardenne. It looks rather a longer bird than the last, and is very quick in its ways.
Phylloscopus rufus.—Common in woods, gardens, and wooded cliffs.
P. trochilus.—On the 3rd I noticed several in song in a wooded part of Lesse valley near Walzin; but it was not observed elsewhere.
P. sibilatrix.—In the Forest of Ardenne there were two or three about some oak trees, and I listened for some time to the curious " chit-it-tit-titereeeeeee," beginning rather slowly and going into a trill. There was another in song in a little oak wood by the Lesse at Houyet.
P. bonellii.—I had a long interview with a pair of Bonelli's Warblers in the Bois de Roquet, near Dinant. The male sang often. The song is a quick, rapid outburst, louder and fuller than a Wood Wren's, but shorter, and with no preliminary slower syllables. It might be lettered "chititereee"—a short outburst, shorter and more rapid than the Lesser Whitethroat's, which it somewhat resembles, but than which it is less loud and metallic. A call-note (that of the male) I noted down on this occasion as a kind of "creech creech creech," followed by one or two sharp little notes, only sometimes heard. I first became acquainted with this curious note in the high-lying cork and oak forest on the spurs of the Atlas in western Tunisia. It puzzled me greatly at first; but finally I shot a male in the act of uttering it. I find that at that time I noted it down as the call of the male, consisting of five notes, and rendered it thus: "aych aych aych chit chit." The pair I saw near Dinant frequented some oak trees, and came
- ↑ S. hortensis is the western Orphean warbler. It is questionable whether this species is meant. (Wikisource contributor note)
