VOL. X.] BIRDS AT DUNGENESS, 1916. 265 



Willow-Wrens. Miss Turner arrived at Dungeness in 

 the middle of the day, and in the late afternoon we Avent 

 to investigate these Warblers again. On our way, we 

 put an Aquatic Warbler {Acrocepkalus aquaticus) out 

 of a low broom-bush. The birds in the willows were 

 acting quite differently from in the morning, coming to 

 the tops of the bushes as if for the purpose of being more 

 easily identified. There were fewer WilloAv-Wrens, but 

 we had good views of two Icterine, and heard the proper 

 Hypolais note more than once. 



Xext morning (13tli) before 8 a.m. we found a Pliyllo- 

 scopus, to all appearance a WiUow-Wren, uttering the 

 peculiar note I had heard the day before, in a small 

 gorse-patch close to the east coast. An hour later this 

 small patch contained a Whitethroat, a Lesser White- 

 throat, and three WiUow-Wrens. Two of these three were 

 making the peculiar note. All were skulking, and 

 dashed from bush to bush without showing themselves 

 well. But in time we got good views of all ; all had pale 

 legs, but the birds with the peculiar note seemed a trifle 

 slimmer and distinctly paler and greyer in colour than 

 the other one. We concluded that they must be Ph. t. 

 eversmanni. In a gorse-row further from the sea we 

 found a third bird of this type, and in the wiUows a 

 fourth, besides three or four of the normal type {Ph. i. 

 trochilus), and at least two (possibly three) Icterines ; 

 but at this time of day the birds were all again very 

 skulking. The note uttered by these Northern Willow- 

 Wrens was distinctly shriUer than that of our resident 

 bird. It seems remarkable that there should be a clear 

 distinction between the call-notes of Ph. t. trochilus and 

 Ph. t. eversmanni, as well as between Ph. c. collyhita and 

 Ph. c. tristis, although the call-notes of our resident Chiff- 

 chaff and Willow-Wren are, as far as I can judge, absol- 

 utely identical, though I understand that some orni- 

 thologists have been able to distinguish them, and also, 

 I suppose, to distinguish both from the autumn call-note 

 of the Redstart. 



