l66 THE BIRDS OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 



east coast, and were seldom long in sight ; one came into my 

 possession and I was able to examine its plumage. 



In spring the male is ashy grey on the upper parts, greyest 

 on the head, rump and tail, and with the wings brownish grey. 

 The wing -coverts are indistinctly barred and the inner second- 

 aries have white tips ; the lower back is faintly barred with 

 brown and white. The greyish-white under parts, brownish on 

 the flanks and under tail-coverts, are distinctly barred with 

 brownish grey. The bill is blackish brown, the legs blue-grey, 

 the irides light yellow. The female is a slightly browner bird, 

 and the bars are less distinct. After the moult the upper parts 

 are browner and the barring more distinct. In the young bird 

 which I examined there was hardly any noticeable barring on 

 the buff-grey head and hair-brown back, but the grey upper 

 tail-coverts had grey edges which showed distinctly in certain 

 lights. The whole of the under parts except the belly was buff, 

 and the under tail-coverts were clearly barred with grey. When 

 in the bushes no suggestion of bars was apparent. Length, 6'6 

 ins. Wing, 3*5 ins. Tarsus, i in. 



Subalpine IHarbler. Sylvia subalpi?ia Temm. 



When the Subalpine Warbler was first seen by Mr. Steele 

 Elliott on St. Kilda in 1894, its grey upper parts and warm 

 chestfiut flanks suggested to him a small Dartford Warbler, but 

 it is a paler, smaller bird, and has a white moustachial streak 

 from the base of the bill, pale edges to the secondaries, and a 

 shorter tail. It breeds in the south-east of France, Italy, 

 Corsica and Sardinia, and has twice, as a wanderer in spring, 

 been added to the list of accidental British birds — one at 

 St. Kilda and one, in 1908, on Fair Island. Length, 47 ins. 

 Wing, 2-3 ins. Tarsus, 75 in. 



