Page:The British Warblers A History with Problems of Their Lives - 6 of 9.djvu/13

 On leaving the egg the bird has its eyelids completely sealed.

In England it is generally distributed and common, and to Scotland it is on the whole an abundant summer visitor, but in the Outer Hebrides it has only been found nesting in Barra, and it is not recorded as nesting in the Orkneys although it does so in the Shetland Islands. In Ireland it is common in all suitable localities.

Throughout the greater part of Western Europe it is generally distributed. In Spain it is found locally as far south as Gibraltar, but is not common. Portugal appears to be visited only on migration. We find it a common breeding species in almost every part of France excepting the south-eastern corner, where it is only found on migration, and it is abundant in Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In Norway and Sweden it is a summer visitor, numerous in places, breeding in the mountains up to the limit of the trees, and inhabiting even the extreme north of that continent. In Italy the bird is abundant in summer in the northern and central provinces, but rather rare on the Adriatic Coast and occasionally visits the mountains of Sardinia, though absent from Corsica. Though fairly common in Bulgaria it does not seem to be a breeding species in Turkey and Greece. Throughout Finland it may be said to be generally distributed and common, the country between St. Petersburg and Archangel is also inhabited, and we find it breeding in the provinces of Vologda, Western Archangel, Viatka, Perm, and the valley of the Petchora. Eastwards from here we trace it to the valleys of the rivers Ob, Yenisei, Lena, and Kolima. Though common in Poland, in the vicinity of St. Petersburg, in the provinces of Novgorod, Tver, Jaroslav, and Moscow, in the district between the rivers Volga and Oka, and in the province of Kasan and neighbouring provinces, yet there seems to be some doubt as to whether it