86 THE BIRDS OF KENT 



and does not speak from his own observation, and no one 

 can read Gould's letterpress without seeing that he 

 mainly went to Yarrell for his description. On skinning 

 my bird it" turned out to be " a perfect ball of fat " — so 

 Gordon described it, and this might perhaps account for 

 its laboured flight, which surprised me." — W. Oxeuden 

 Hammond (St. Alban's Court, AVingham, Kent). 



The specimen above described is mounted and grouped 

 with a nest and one egg in the Canterbury Museum, but 

 there are no particulars given with regard to the nest and 



■-«&• 



AQUATIC WAEBLEK. 



Acrocephalus aquaticus (J. F. Gnielin). 

 8.N., i., p. 953 (1788). 



Mr. J. H. Gurney, juii., was the first to call attention 

 to a specimen of the Aquatic Warbler which had been 

 obtained in this county. He wrote the following par- 

 ticulars to the Zoologist in 1871 : — 



" On February 2, 1871, I detected an Aquatic Warbler 

 {Galamodijta aquatica, Latham) among the British birds 

 of the late Dr. Plomley at the Dover Museum, which 

 Mr. C. Gordon, the Curator, informed me had been shot 

 by himself in the vicinity. The date is lost, but I have 

 no suspicion of a mistake." 



Supposed Occurrence of Sylvia aquatica in Kent. — " On 

 October 12, while rambling over the Cliffe marshes, near 

 the Thames, I saw a little bird flitting along a reedy 

 ditch, which at first sight I considered to be a Sedge- 

 Warbler. Pursuing it, however, with my glass in hand, 

 I got a very near view of the bird, and was surprised to 



