428 ■ SYLVIIDiE. 



in 1789*. In November, 1792, Mr. Thomas Lamb supplied 

 some particulars of this same bird to the Linnean Society, 

 which were published in 1794 in that Society's ' Transac- 

 tions ' (ii. p. 245, pi. 24) ; and in 1796 Montagu (having 

 observed this species, in 1790, at Easton-Grey in Wiltshire 

 and, in 1792, at White Knights near Reading, and having 

 obtained also specimens of it, with its nests, and eggs) fur- 

 nished in March, 1796, a further account of it, under the 

 name of Sijlvia sijlricola, to the same Society, which account 

 was published in 1798. His name was, however, forestalled 

 by Bechstein, who had, in 1793, contributed to a German 

 periodical a discriminative notice of this species and its 

 allies, calling it Motacilla sib'ilatrix. The bird is now very 

 well known, and is at once distinguished from the Willow- 

 Wren, next to be described, with which it is most likely to 

 be confounded, by its longer wings ; by the broad streak of a 

 bright sulphur-yellow over its eyes and ear-coverts ; by the 

 pure green of the body above ; by its whiter belly and lower 

 tail-coverts ; and, on closer examination, by its smaller and 

 narrow first primary. The two birds just named, with the 

 two, of which an account is to follow, have much in common, 

 and they differ from most of the Warblers already described 

 in the general colour of their plumage ; in not being fruit- 

 eaters ; and in building nests, which are invariiibly domed 

 or covered over at the top, and are commonly placed on or 

 near the ground. 



The Wood-Wren seldom reaches even the southern parts 

 of England till near the end of April, the males making 

 their appearance a week or ten days before the females ; but 

 the time of arrival, as first noticed by Selby, generally coin- 

 cides with that of the elms' and oaks' bursting into leaf ; 

 and that gentleman considered, from repeated observations, 

 that with all our summer-visitants there is a difference of 

 ten days or a fortnight between their arrival in the southern 

 and northern parts of the kingdom. 



* White was, liowever, to some extent anticipated in his observation of this 

 species, for as has been ah-eady remarked (page 386) it was assuredly the bird 

 described by Johnson to Ray. 



