A NEW BRITISH BIRD 271 



ON THE OCCURRENCE OF PHYLLOSCOPUS 

 FUSCATUS (BLYTH) IN THE ORKNEY 

 ISLANDS: A NEW BRITISH BIRD. 



By Wm. Eagle Clarke. 



DURING the past autumn I spent nearly five weeks on the 

 Orkney island of Auskerry, arriving there on 3rd September 

 and leaving on 6th October. George Stout accompanied me 

 as my assistant and taxidermist, and Dr C. B. Ticehurst 

 joined me on 17th September. 



Auskerry is one of the most easterly islands of the 

 Orcades ; is uninhabited, except that it boasts of a light- 

 house ; is small, being only some 260 acres in area ; and lies 

 some three miles south of the large island of Stronsay. 



Here on the morning of 3rd October many birds were 

 present on their passage southwards, having arrived the 

 previous night, and among them the bird under consideration 

 an Asiatic waif known to Indian ornithologists under the 

 name of the Dusky Willow-warbler or Dusky Tree-warbler. 

 This erratic wayfarer was found early in the day amid a 

 patch of nettles, and was at once detected as a stranger, 

 but, being very shy, escaped capture for some time. When 

 secured, it was recognised as a species which had, as yet, no 

 place in the British avifauna. I afterwards identified it as 

 Phylloscopus fuscatus a finding which was most obligingly 

 confirmed by comparison with specimens in the Tring 

 Museum. 



The Dusky Willow - warbler is a summer visitor to 

 eastern and central Siberia, where its range extends from 

 the Yenesay Valley to the shores of the Pacific Ocean ; and 

 southwards to the Himalayas, where it has been found 

 nesting in Sikkim, and has also been observed in the breeding 

 season in Nepal. It occurs on its migrations in Mongolia, 

 North China, and Japan ; and winters in India, where it is 

 found in Bengal and the North-west Provinces to Assam, 

 in Burma, Tenasserim, southern China, Hainan, and 

 Formosa. It has not, so far as I have been able to 



