VOL. VI.] NOTES FROM HOLY ISLAND. 207 



note of a Lesser Whitethroat, but much softer and less 

 harsh. We then beat the hedge gently, but the bird 

 kept well in the middle, and neither Miss Jackson nor 

 I could get more than a momentary view of it. I then 

 shot it, and on picking it up thought on account of the 

 want of any reddish tinge in its plumage that it might be 

 a Marsh- Warbler. Its wing-formula was, however, wrong 

 for this species, and subsequent examination and com- 

 parison have shown it to be a very difficult specimen to 

 identify with certainty. On dissection it proved to be a 

 female, and a bird of the year freshly moulted into first 

 winter-plumage. It was exceedingly fat. In coloration 

 it exactly matches specimens of A . dumetorum, the upper- 

 parts being dark brown without any of the reddish tinge 

 which is ahvays present in A. sirejjerus. The flanks, as 

 in A. dumetorum, are scarcely marked with buff, while 

 in A. streperus (especially in young birds in autumn) the 

 flanks are strongly washed with buff. The wing-formula 

 is, however, not quite typical of either species. The 

 second primary is equal to the fifth, and the third and 

 fourth primaries are emarginated on their outer webs. 

 In A. dumetorum the second primary is almost invariably 

 shorter than the fifth, and is very often shorter than the 

 sixth. But I have examined one or two specimens in 

 which the second is equal to the fifth, and several in 

 which it is only a shade shorter than the fifth. In 

 A. streperu.s the second is generally equal to or a httle 

 shorter than the fourth, and very rarely so short as the 

 fifth. The wing measures 60 .| mm., wliich is right for 

 A. dumetorum, but rather small for a female A. streperus. 

 Taking all the characters together, I must therefore 

 conclude that this is a specimen of Blyth's Reed-Warbler 

 (Acrocephalus dumetorum), although it is unfortunate that 

 it is not quite typical. The note of the bird, which I have 

 described above, was unhke any note that I have heard 

 a Reed- Warbler utter. The wind on this date was blowing 

 fairly strongly from the S.S.E., and had been S.E. for 

 several days previovTsly. 



