CHIFF-CHAFF 503 



and distinguished by the well-marked yellow crown-stripe and rump. 

 A single example was taken in Norfolk in the autumn of 1896. 



Of yet another Siberian species, known as Radde's warbler {P/iyl/o- 

 scflpHS sc/iziurrs/), a British example has been obtained. This species, 

 which is of the appro.ximate size of a whitethroat, measuring 

 5^ inches in length, is dark olive-brown above with a buff eyebrow- 

 streak, and white under-parts shading into bufifish on the breast and 

 flanks. On account of the shorter and stouter beak, and the larger 

 number of supplemental bristles in this region, it is frequently made 

 the sole representative of a distinct genus under the name of Herbi- 

 vocitla scJiivarzi. The specimen referred to was taken in Lincolnshire 

 in the autum.n of 1898. 



From the same county was obtained in the autumn of 1896 an 

 example of Bl\-th's willow-wren {Phylloscopiis viridanus), a species 

 sometimes referred, with several others, to a genus apart, and then 

 called AcantJiopneustc viridanus, the name referring to the excessive 

 development of the supplementary bristles near the wide beak, which 

 completely overhang the nostrils. The species breeds in Siberia, Turk- 

 estan, and Kashmir, visiting peninsular India in winter. Another 

 example was obtained at a lighthouse on the Sutherland coast in 1902. 



By common consent the tree-warbler, or so-called icterine warbler 

 {Hypolais ictcrind), is made the type of a separate genus, which 

 includes one other species. These birds, which resemble willow- 

 wrens in general appearance, have the supplemental bristles in 

 front of the gape even more feebly developed, while the beak is 

 broader and flatter, so as to approach the reed-wren type. This 

 flatness and breadth of the beak, of which the lower half is 

 yellow, coupled with the relativel}' large size of the bird (length 

 5^ inches), and the bright yellow of its under-parts, seem to 

 distinguish this warbler from all the other species which visit the 

 British Isles. Wintering in northern Africa, this warbler reaches 

 southern Europe in April, and Holland and Denmark, which form 

 its northern limits, during the following month. In some works the 

 species is referred to as Hvpolais Jiypolais. 



Eight examples of the tree-warbler were recorded in the British 

 Islands during the nineteenth century, the first being from Kent in 

 1848. With the exception of one taken near Dublin in 1856, the 

 rest were from the south and eastern coasts of England, ranging from 

 Dorsetshire in the south-west to Newcastle-on-Tyne in the north. Two 

 other examples were taken in 1905, one in Sussex in June, and the 

 other in the Isle of Wight in September. 



