390 BRITISH BIRDS. 
SYLVIA ORPHEUS*. 
ORPHEAN WARBLER. 
(Prate 10.) 
Ficedula curruca, Briss. Orn. iii. p. 372 (1760). 
Motacilla hippolais, Zinn. apud Bodd. Table Pl. Eni. p. 35 (1783). 
Motacilla hortensis, Gmel. Syst. Nat. i. p. 955 (1788). 
Sylvia hortensis (Gmel.), Lath. Ind. Orn. ii. p. 507 (1790). 
Sylvia atricapilla (Linn.), var. y, Lath. Ind. Orn. ii. p. 507 (1790). 
Sylvia orphea, Temm. Man. d’Orn. p. 107 (1815); et auctorum plurimorum-— 
Meyer, Naumann, (Bonaparte), Cabanis, (Loche), Heuglin, Gray, Satwadori, 
Newton, Dresser, &e. 
Sylvia grisea, Vieill. N. Dict. d’ Hist. Nat. xi. p. 188 (1817). 
Curruca orphea (Temm.), Bote, Isis, 1822, p. 553. 
Sylvia crassirostris, Cretzschm. Riipp. Atlas, p. 49, pl. 33. fig. a (1826). 
Curruca crassirostris (Cretzschm.), Bonap. Consp. i. p. 294 (1850). 
The Orphean Warbler was admitted into the British list on the strength 
of an example said to have been obtained in a small plantation near 
Wetherby on the 6th of July, 1848. The occurrence of this bird, which 
was a female, and was said to be accompanied by its mate which was not 
obtained, was recorded by Sir William Milner in the ‘ Zoologist’ for 1848, 
p. 2588. A second example, a bird of the year, was caught in June 1866, 
near Holloway, in Middlesex, and was kept alive by Sergeant- Major Hanley 
for nearly six months. This occurrence was recorded by Mr. Harting 
in the ‘ Field’ for the 22nd of April 1871. One or more nests with eggs, 
supposed to be those of this species, have been taken in England. Under 
the most favourable circumstances, even supposing no error to have crept 
into the history or identification of any of these occurrences, the Orphean 
Warbler can only be looked upon as a very rare and accidental straggler 
to our islands. 
On the continent the range of this bird is very restricted. It appears 
to be a summer migrant to all the countries lying in the basin of the 
* The Orphean Warbler has been peculiarly fortunate in its name, which appears to 
have fascinated both Professor Newton and Mr, Dresser to such an extent that instead of 
carrying out the rules of the British Association regardless of consequences, as is their 
wont, they have actually in this case thrown overboard the Stricklandian Code and 
adopted the auctorum plurimorum principle, allowing themselves, for once in their lives 
at least, to be guided in a question of nomenclature by common sense instead of orni- 
thological pedantry. There can be no doubt that, according to the Stricklandian Code, 
the bird should be called Sylvia hortensis, the name in common use for the Garden- 
Warbler; but the absurdity in carrying out the rules in this case is so transparent that 
not even their most enthusiastic devotees have attempted it, 
