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-XLIX.: On an apparently new Species of Wren, discovered at 
Tunbridge Wells, by Tuomas Forster, Esq. F.L.S. 
To Mr. Tilloch. 
Sir, — I BEG leave to communicate the discovery of what seems 
to me to be a new species of wren, which I have of late seen in 
the neighbourhood of Tunbridge Wells. I saw it in the-month 
of September and early in the present month, among the trees, 
particularly the firs, pines, and willows. It was about four inches 
and a quarter Jong, and bore the nearest resemblance in form to 
the smallest willow wren, Sylvia Hippolais of Latham and 
E.Forster’s catalogue. But it differed in colour: the upper parts 
of the whole body, head, wings, and tail being of a pure dark 
brown: the under parts silvery white. This may possibly be 
only a variety of the Sylvia Hippolais, as birds of this kind vary 
extremely; but if it be a distinct species, both its form and man- 
ners place it among the Sylvie: and I should propose to call it 
Sylvia brunnea. It nearly answers to the. description of a 
bird which Dr. Leach (of the British Museum) calls Curruca, 
of which he has spoken to me as being a new wren. 
We have all the three known species of willow wren at Tun- 
bridge Wells; and I have observed a considerable variation of 
the plumage in all of them, which has, no doubt, been in part 
the cause of the great confusion found in the descriptions of birds 
of this genus among naturalists. I proceed to enumerate some 
of the most common varieties I have noticed. 
Sylvia Sylvicola; or the largest willow wren. This, which 
somewhat exceeds the common willow wren in size, is found with 
the following varieties : 
a. With the upper parts greyish; the under parts almost white. 
8. The upper parts yellowish, green mixed with dusky ; and 
the under parts yellow, more or less deep. 
vy. Almost yellow like a Canary-bird, there being only a few 
dusky specks on the wings, and dusky quills. I have seen this 
variety in the garden of Mrs. Forster, of Walthamstow, on the 
spruce fir-tree. 
Syluia Trochilus, the middle willow wren, varies as fol- 
lows : ; 
a. Greenish ash-colour above, and white with a tinge of yel- 
low beneath. 
8. Greenish olive, mixed with yellow above, and deep yellow 
on all the under parts. This seems to be the first-year’s bird ; 
and the plumage changes afterwards. 
Sylvia Hippolais, the least willow wren. This varies only in 
the 
