The year of the first confirmed breeding record of the Sardinian warbler Sylvia melanocephala in the Maltese islands

Abstract

Dresser(1885) in a letter to the editor of the Ibis, states that when he was working at the "Birds of Europe", Major Fielden had written to him to say that he had found the Sardinian warbler Sylvia melanocephala in Malta in the summer of 1874 and had little doubt that it remained to breed. Dresser continues by stating that this surmise was shown to be correct by another letter which he had "lately received" from Dr. David Bruce, who was then quartered in Malta, reporting that he found two nests that summer. There is no doubt therefore that the first nests were located by Dr. Bruce in summer of 1884.