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: 
Mr. Gould on a new British Warbler. 103 
their systematic catalogues more than one hundred birds unknown to 
our own shores, it may appear surprising that researches in this class are 
not more frequently rewarded with new objects, their power of flight, 
and extent of migration being duly appreciated. Many rare birds pro- 
bably escape unnoticed, others unknown, and some unrecorded. 
The foliage of our extensive woods and thick hedgerows affords imper- 
vious shelter to the smaller summer ‘visitors, and it is to one of the nu- 
merous family of the Warblers, whose habits confine them to such 
localities, that I now refer. 
This bird was shot at Kilburn, on the 25th of October, by my friend, 
Mr. Frederick Bond, who has kindly allowed me to make any comment 
I may think proper. It was at first believed to be a variety of the Red- 
‘start; but on closer investigation a comparison was instituted by which 
the real difference was ascertained ; the individual proving to be the 
black Redtail of Latham’s Synopsis, Vol. IV., page 486, Sp. 16; the 
Sylvia Tithys of the same author’s Ind. Orn., Voi. II, page 512, Sp. 16; 
and the Bec-fin rouge-queue of M. Temminck’s Manuel d’Ornithologie, 
Vol. I, p. 218. It is correctly figured (under the latter name, though 
with the wrong Latin appellation of Sylvia suecica) in Werner’s Atlas 
des Oiseaux d’ Europe, which is intended as an illustration of the Manuel 
just quoted. 
The length of this bird is 52 inches. Its beak black ; the head, back, 
and neck dusky slate-colour ; the chin and abdomen somewhat lighter ; 
the upper and under tail-coverts chestnut ; the wing-primaries dusky, 
their edges ash-colour, and shafts black ; the two middle tail-feathers 
dusky black, and all the others chestnut. 
Adult males of this species have the general plumage of the body 
darker, and the chestnut-coloured parts more bright. 
This bird appears to be found over an extensive portion of the north 
of Europe, but according to M. Temminck is only occasionally seen in 
Holland. It is at once distinguished from our Redstart by its dark breast 
and under parts, the whole of which in our well-known Sylvia Pheni- 
curus are of a bright chestnut. 
I avail myself of this opportunity to notice the occurrence of a third 
specimen of the Plectrophanes Lapponica, a species described by Mr. 
Selby, in the 15th volume of the Transactions of the Linnean Society 
