310 BRITISH BIKDS. 



I have heard the song on a few occasions during September, 

 but further observations are necessary before I can pubhsh 

 a decisive statement as to the period of autumnal singing. 



Howard Bentham. 



CHIFFCHAFF IN KENT IN WINTER. 



On December 19th, 1910, near Tunbridge Wells, I saw a 

 ChiffchafF (Phylloscopus rufus) which seemed to be quite 

 vigorous and in good plumage. It was uttering the usual 

 call-notes (not the song) frequently, and I noticed that it was 

 distinctly j^ellowish on the breast ; these two facts seem 

 sufficient proof that it was not Phylloscopus tristis. I also 

 saw the dark legs, and so knew that the bird Avas not a WilloAv- 

 Wren. A few days later I saw what I sui:)pose to have been 

 the same bird quite half-a-mile from the original spot, but on 

 January 1st it Avas at exactly the same spot as on December 

 19th. Since then it seems to have disappeared. 



H. G. Alexander. 



BROWN-BACKED WARBLERS, NOT GREY-BACKED 

 WARBLERS, IN SUSSEX AND KENT. 



At the meeting of the British Ornithologists' Club held on 

 November 16th, 1910, Mr. A. F. Griffith exhibited a siDecimen 

 of a Warbler which he identified as the Grey-backed Warbler 

 [Aedon familiar is, Menetr.) The bird was an adult male, and 

 had been shot at Ninfield, Sussex, on May 13th, 1910. It 

 was examined in the flesh by Mr. L. C. Edwards at the shop 

 of Mr. Bristow, taxidermist, St. Leonards, and had subse- 

 quentlv been jjurchased by Mr. Griffith and presented by him 

 to the Booth Museum at Brighton [cf. Bull. B.O.C., XXVII., 

 p. 29). Dr. Hartert has examined this specimen and finds 

 that it is undoubted^ of the race called A . galactodes syriacus 

 (Hempr. and Ehr.), which is distributed from Herzegovina 

 and southern Dalmatia throughout Greece to Asia Minor 

 and northern Syria. A. g. familiaris, which is decidedly 

 greyer and less brown on the upper-parts than A. g. syriacus, 

 has a more eastern range, being found in the south Caucasus, 

 Persia, Mesopotamia, Transcaspia, Turkestan, Afghanistan 

 and Baluchistan. The Rufous Warbler (A. g. galactodes) is 

 very much more rufous on the ujiper-jiarts than either of the 

 forms mentioned above, and is found in Portugal, southern 

 Spain and north-west Africa. A. g. syriacus, the new bird to the 

 British list, ma}' perhaps be called the Brown-backed Warbler. 

 It will be remembered that Mr. J. B. Nichols recorded and 

 figured in our first volume (p. 257) the first British specimen 

 of a bird identified as the Grey-backed Warbler {A. g. 



