Page:The British Warblers A History with Problems of Their Lives - 9 of 9.djvu/16

 The female resembles the male, but the crown is not quite so dark and the outer edges of the flight-feathers are more buffish brown.

In autumn the crown is more greyish, and the under parts, especially the throat and upper breast, are washed with rosy buff, the flanks tending more towards rosy brown.

Immature.— The general colour is similar to that of the female, but the upper parts are of a more brownish colour and the outer edges of the flight-feathers and wing-coverts rusty buff.

There are four records of the occurrence of this species in Great Britain, two of which seem to be somewhat doubtful. The bird inhabits south-western Europe and north-western Africa. It is common in Spain and Portugal, and is found in southern and central France, Luxemburg, and in the western parts of Switzerland. In Italy and Sicily it is local, but it is absent from Corsica and Sardinia.

Eastwards a somewhat different race, with stouter and longer bill, occurs in Dalmatia, Montenegro, Greece, Asia Minor, Palestine, Bokhara, Afghanistan and Turkestan.

The eastern form winters in north-eastern Africa, Arabia, and India, but the western race winters probably in west Africa and the oases of the Sahara.