PASSERES. 



WOOD -WREN. 



427 



%s. 



ra'^^ '"^t^^l^'iS'i 





Phylloscopus sibilatrix (Beclistein *). 

 THE WOOD-WREN. 



Sylvia sijlvlcolai. 



Phylloscopus, F. Boie.i — Bill slender, rather short, upper mandible decurved 

 from the middle and compressed towards the tip, which is very slightly notched ! 

 nostrils basal, lateral, oblong and partly oj)erculate, the membrane clothed with 

 small bristle-tipped feathers, the internasal ridge very thin ; gape beset with 

 hairs. Wings rather long; the first primary in most species comparatively large, 

 but always much shorter than the second, third or fourth, one of the two last 

 being the longest. Tail of twelve feathers, slightly forked. Legs with the tarsus 

 scaled in front and rather long, as are also the toes and claws. 



The Wood-Wren was clearly distinguished by Gilbert 

 White of Selborne from the two most nearly allied sj)ecies, 

 as shewn by his letters to Pennant in the year 1768, published 



* Motacilla sibilatrix, Beclistein, Naturforscher, xxvii. p. 47 (1793). 

 t Montagu, Trans. Linn. Soc. iv. p. -35 (l/US). 

 X Isis, 1S2(J, p. Ml-l. 



