LOST BRITISH BIRDS 



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SAVrS WARBLER 



{LOCUSTELLA LUSCINIOIDES) 



IN many respects Savi's Warbler is a very 

 interesting little bird. In the first place, it 

 may safely be regarded as the most fleeting known 

 species that has ever occupied a place in the British 

 fauna; for it was not discovered to be a British 

 bird at all until about the year 1819, and in less 

 than forty years it had, so far as can be ascertained, 

 become extinct in our islands, the last specimen 

 having been obtained in 1856. Savi's Warbler 

 becomes still more interesting to English naturalists 

 from the fact that the species may be said to have 

 been first discovered in the British Islands, although 

 its specific distinctness was not declared until four 

 years after this event, when in 1824 Savi gave it a 



