I 



AQUATIC WAHKLKR. 381 



thought to he an unusually hright-colourcd Kpecinien of the 

 Sedge- Warhler, hut its real character heing made plain, it 

 was soon after, hy Mr. Borrer's kind permission, exhihited, 

 May 8th, 1866, at a meeting of the Zoological Society (Proc. 

 Zool. Soc. 1866, p. 210), In the following year Mr. Harting 

 recorded simultaneously in the ' Zoologist ' (s.s. p. 946) and 

 'The Ihis' (1867, p. 4()9) the fact that he possessed a 

 second J^ritish specimen of the species, which had heen oh- 

 tained near Loughhorough in Leicestershire in the summer 

 of 1864, and sent to him under the Ijelief that it was a 

 (Trasshopper-Warhler, the species next to he included. In 

 l^'ehruary, 1871, Mr. J. H. Gurney, junior, detected among 

 the liritish hirds in the Museum at Dover a third example 

 of the Aquatic Warhler which the Curator, Mr. Charles Gor- 

 don, stated he himself had shot near that town, though his 

 note of the date has heen lost. Mr. Gurney has since 

 pointed out (Trans. Norf. and Norw. Nat. Soc. 1871-72, 

 p. 62) that the hird figured as a Sedge-Warbler in Hunt's 

 ' J:}ritish Ornithology ' was undoubtedly of the present 

 species, and accordingly that in all likelihood the Aquatic 

 VV^irbler had occurred in Norfolk so long ago as the year 

 1815 — but as no letterpress accompanies the plate, the sup- 

 })osition must always remain uncertain. 



Considering that the ordinary geographical range of this 

 species extends to the northern coast of France, the marshes 

 near Dieppe being especially mentioned as a locality for it, 

 and to the shores of Belgium and Holland — though in lioth 

 the countries last named it is rare, the presumption that it 

 is occasionally a voluntary visitor to this side of the Channel 

 can scarcely be withstood, and its inclusion in the present 

 work seems to be fairly defensil)le. Still there is no reason 

 to think that it ever dwells among us, and as its habits are 

 said to resemble very closely those of the Sedge-bird, a brief 

 account of the species will suffice. 



In its geographical distribution the Aquatic Warbler would 

 seem to be much more limited than the Sedge-bird, and is 

 perhaps a less eastern species. It has been noticed by Mr. 

 Gatke as a straggler to Heligoland, and the Danish ornitholo- 



