A NEW SCOTTISH BIRD : THE AQUATIC WARBLER 



A NEW SCOTTISH BIRD: THE AQUATIC 

 WARBLER AT FAIR ISLE. 



By William Eagle Clarke. 



By the occurrence there of the Aquatic Warbler {Acrocephalus 

 aquaticics), Fair Isle, the British Heligoland, has again con- 

 tributed not only an interesting addition to the Scottish 

 avifauna, but also a remarkable extension in the northern 

 range of that bird both at home and abroad. This species is a 

 rare visitor to England, where it has been known to occur in 

 spring or autumn on over a score occasions, chiefly in the 

 south-eastern and southern counties, and there is little doubt 

 that it has nested there on more than one occasion, though 

 the details have never been made public. It has twice 

 been obtained on the south coast of Ireland. Hitherto 

 Leicestershire has been the most northern county known 

 to have been visited in the British Isles, so that the Fair 

 Isle bird was indeed a great traveller. The Aquatic 

 Warbler is a regular summer visitor to Central and Southern 

 Europe, and finds there its northern limit in Southern 

 Denmark, but beyond that area, so far as the writer is aware, 

 it has not been detected even as a wanderer at the period 

 of its migrations. It is also a native of North-west Africa, 

 and winters there, but it is probable that it has cold- 

 weather retreats in the adjacent tropical region. 



Our Scottish specimen is a male, and was captured at 

 Fair Isle on the 23rd of October — a late date — during a 

 period marked by the occurrence of a number of uncommon 

 and regular migratory visitors. In its dress of rich rufous 

 buff heavily streaked with black on the upper surface, it is 

 a very conspicuous bird. The deep buff under parts of this 

 specimen, which is in winter plumage, lack the dark striations 

 on the throat and flanks which are characteristic of its 

 summer dress. 



It I B R A r 



