64 THE BIRDS OF KENT 



Genus MELIZOPHILUS, Leach. 



DAKTFOED WAEBLEE. 



Meliz'opJiilns undata (Boddaert). Tahl. des PL Enl., 

 p. 40 (1783). Sylvia dartfordiensis, Latham, 

 Ind. Orn., ii., p. 517 (1790). 



The earliest notice of this species in Kent is contained 

 in Pennant's British Zoology (i., p. 389, pi. Ivi., 1776), 

 who called it the Dartford Warbler, and says that a 

 "pair of these were shot on a common near Dartford, in 

 April, 1773, and communicated to me by Mr. Latham. 

 They fed on flies, which they sprang on from the furze 

 bush they sat on ; and then returned to it again." In 

 1778, according to Professor Newton, "it was described 

 by Buffon, and figured in the Planches Enluminees in 

 1783, under the name of Motacilla undata, Boddaert." 



Latham, in his General Synoj^sis (vol. ii., pt. 2, p. 435, 

 1783), adopts the name of Dartford Warbler, and states 

 that "A pair was brought to me killed by a friend on 

 Bexley Heath, near Dartford, April 10, 1773, while 

 sitting on a furze bush. These fed on flies, springing 

 from the bush on spying one within reach and returning 

 to the same place repeatedly, in this imitating much the 

 manner of our cinereous Flycatcher." J. F. Gmelin, in 

 his Systema Naturce, 1788 (i., p. 958), describes it under 

 Motacilla provincialis, and Latham in his Pidex Ornitho- 

 logicus (ii., p. 517, 1790) describes it under the name 

 Sylvia dartfordiensis. In many works on British Birds 

 the two latin names are used, therefore Boddaert's specific 

 name has priority. 



The Kev. J. Pemberton Bartlett, in his Ornithology of 



