HMED-WARBLKR. 



PA SSERRS. 



369 



^YLvrinj'.. 



ACROCEPHALUS STREPERUS (Vieillot*). 



THE REED-WARBLER. 



SaUcarhi a rundinacea f. 



The Reed-Warbler appears to have been first clearly 

 distinguished by the late Mr. Lightfoot, who, in a letter 

 to Sir Joseph Banks, dated " Uxhridge, Nov. 20, 1783," 

 read November 17tli, 1784, before the Royal Society, and 

 printed in its ' Transactions ' for the following year, well 

 described the habits, plumage and nest of this species, 

 which he found frequenting the reeds of the river Colne at 

 Denham in Middlesex. The nest and eggs had also been 

 sent to him from Dartford by Latham, who did not know the 



* Si/lvia strepera, Vieillot, Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. xi. p. 182 (1817). 



t Molacilla arundinacea, Lightfoot, Phil. Trans. Ixxv. p. 11 (1785); but 

 not Turdus arundinaceus, Linnasus (176*)), which, being strictly congeneric, 

 is entitled by priority to this specific name. 



VOL. I. 3 B 



