68 The Orphean Warbler. 



'Abrahams' Food' every hour, until they were old enough to require nourishment 

 less frequently. Unhappily (as is often the case, even with the greatest care) 

 they got very dirty : a flattened and pointed stick is a poor substitute for the 

 parents' bill. In consequence of the matting of their feathers, the two weakest 

 died, probably from chill ; the two remaining birds were reared ; but, though 

 unnaturally fat, from lack of proper exercise, they were incessantly clamouring 

 for food ; yet they seemed healthy enough. About the third week of July, in 

 the act of stretching forward to snatch some food which I offered, they fell dead 

 from apoplexy : the moral of which is — do not overfeed youngsters because 

 they cry. 



Family— TURD ID. ^. Subfamily—SYL VIIN^. 



The Orphean Warbler. 



Sylvia Orphea, Temm. 



The existence of this species in Great Britain rests upon the authority of a 

 female said by a bird-stuifer, Graham, of York, to have been shot near 

 Wetherby, and upon a young bird caught in Middlesex, kept in captivity 

 for nearly six months and then identified by the late Mr. E. Blyth. Nests and 

 eggs supposed to belong to this species have also been taken. 



In spite of these facts, it seems to me that there is, at present, not sufficient 

 evidence to justify the admission of the Orphean Warbler into the British list. 

 As Mr. Seebohm remarks : — " Under the most favourable circumstances, even 

 supposing no error to have crept into the history or identification of an}' of these 

 occurrences, the Orphean Warbler can only be looked upon as a veryvrare and 

 accidental straggler to our islands." 



