SVLVIIN/K 



59 



THE yellow-browp:d warbler. 



Phyll(5scopus supercili(')sus (J. F. Gmelin). 



This rare little straggler was introduced to the British list by 

 Mr. John Hancock, who shot an example on September 26th 1838, 

 on the sea banks near Hartley, Northumberland, about four miles 

 north of the Tyne. It was catching insects on the tops of the taller 

 herbage ; and its actions were so like those of the Golden-crested 

 Wren that he mistook it at first for one of that species. This speci- 

 men is now in the Museum at Newcastle. A second example, 

 recorded by Gould as having been obtained near Cheltenham on 

 October nth 1867, by Mr. J. T. White, passed into the collection 

 of the late Sir John Harpur Crewe. Lastly, a third specimen was 

 taken at the lantern of Sumburgh Head lighthouse, Shetland, by 

 Mr, James Youngclause, on September 25th 1886, as recorded by 

 Mr. Harvie-Brown, to whom it was sent in the flesh. 



On the Continent identified examples have been obtained, at rare 

 intervals, near Berlin, Vienna, and Leyden ; but on Lleligoland the 

 Yellow-browed Warbler has been taken or seen at least eighty times 

 between 1846 and the end of 1887 — on its autumn migrations, 

 with the exception of two in April and May (Gatke). Its summer- 

 home appears to be in the pine-forests of North-eastern Siberia, 

 from the valley of the Yenesei eastward to the Pacific, and from 

 the mountains of Lake Baikal northward to the Arctic circle. The 

 bird passes through Mongolia and North China on migration, and 

 winters in South China. Assam, Ikirnia and North-eastern India 



