THE THREE BRITISH TREBLINGS. 83 



arched at top, with a hole in the side : exterior, hay ; interior, 

 feathers. Lays five or six eggs, prettily speckled with red. Ap- 

 pears in Britain in the beginning of April. 



Motacilla trochilus. Lath., Ind. Orn., i., p. 338. — Motacilla 

 acredula, Lin., Syst. NaL, i., p. 338. — Silvia trochilus. Lath., 

 I7id. Orn., ii., p. 338; Pen., Brit. ZooL, i., p. 511. — Becfin pouillot, 

 Tem., Man. d'Orn., i., p. 224, and iii„ p. 152. — Garten Sanger, 

 Brbhm., Vog. Deut.j p. 427. — Fitis Sanger, Meyer, Tass. Deut., 

 i., p. 248. — Yellow Warbler, Pen., Brit. ZooL, i., p. 511, Stev., 

 Shaw's Gen. ZooL, x., p. 742. — Willow Warbler, Mudie, Feath. 

 Tribes, i., p. 338. 



Weight, about two drams ; colour of the head, hind neck, and 

 back, pale green; wings and tail, brown, edged with yellowish 

 green; from the lower mandible a well-defined, light yellow streak 

 passes over each eye ; throat, cheeks, and breast, yellow ; belly, 

 pure white ; legs, yellowish brown. 



Hedge Trebling. — Silvia loquax. 

 Becfin veloce. Weiden Sanger. 



The Wood Treeling and the Garden Treeling have been frequent- 

 ly confounded by authors ; by some, having been united into one 

 species, and by others, as Bewick, they have been multiplied into 

 many species : ornithologists are now, however, pretty well agreed 

 on those two species, but the bird now under consideration is yet 

 enveloped in error. I am convinced that Selby is wrong when he 

 gives the Becfin a poitrine-jau7ie, and the Silvia kippolais, of Tem- 

 minck, as synonyms of the Hedge Treeling. Those names seem 

 rather to refer to the Arbor Horticule (Horticula poliglotta, 

 Blyth). Notwithstanding this obvious fact, British ornithologists 

 continue to adopt the specific name kippolais, which increases the 

 confusion. Rennie, I believe, is the first who pointed out the iden- 

 tity of the Silvia kippolais of Selby, with the Silvia rvfa (Becfin 

 veloce) of Temminck. The mistake seems to have been caused by 

 the vague term kippolais, which may be applied, with equal justice, 

 to either of the birds, and which should thus be abandoned. Ano- 

 ther cause of confusion is, the Hedge Treeling having been named 

 " Silvia rufa" by Latham and Temminck — a most inapplicable 

 name certainly. This species, vulgarly Pettichaps, Chifchaf, &c., 

 is very common in our island, and haunts plantations, shrubberies, 

 woods, and hedges, in which its slim form may be seen flitting 

 about, in the spring, and even sometimes in the latter part of win- 



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