Letters, Extracts, Notices, S^c. 637 



Soft parts, as described by Mr. Travis, and so far as we 

 could judge ourselves: — Bill pale lemon-yellow along tlie 

 culmen, passing into brownish black at the bend towards the 

 tip for about 1 inch. The extreme tip for about half an inch 

 pale whitish horn- colour, remainder brownish orange. Legs 

 and feet fleshy blue. 



Yours, &c., 



E. A. BuTLEtt, Lt.-Col. 



Brettenbam Park, Ipswich, 

 25tli Ausrust, 1897. 



I 



The Melodious Warbler (Hypolais polyglotta) in Sussex. — 

 In Bulletin xlv. of the British Ornithologists' Club it was 

 stated (see ' Ibis,' supra, p. 452) that Mr. N. F. Ticehurst 

 had exhibited a specimen of the Icterine Warbler {Hyjmlais 

 icterina) shot at Burwash, in Sussex, and in the 'Zoologist' 

 for last July he mentioned a second and smaller Warbler, 

 shot at the same time and place. The description of the 

 latter pointed strongly to H. polyglotta, and this the bird 

 proved to be on examination, Mr. Gr. Bristow, of St. Leonard's, 

 having obligingly sent both the specimens to Saunders 

 for inspection. The H. polyglotta proved to be a male by 

 dissection; the Icterine Warbler was a female; while, as a 

 matter of detail, the date was April 30th, and not May 1st, 

 which was the day the birds were received, together with 

 various small birds shot by the same person. 



The occasional visits of H. polyglotta to the British Islands 

 have been suspected for some time. On May 2Gth, 1886, 

 the Rev. Allan Ellison saw and heard a bird, which probably 

 belonged to this species, in Co. Wicklow, Ireland ; while 

 during the same summer the Rev. Murray A. Mathew often 

 watched and listened to a similar bird, which he describes in 

 his * Birds of Pembrokeshire,' p. 9. In 1893 an q^^, Mhich, 

 from its small size and rich pink colour, seemed to belong 

 to H. polyglotta, was sent to Saunders as one of a clutch 

 taken near Lancing, Sussex, and there was evidence that 

 the bird had nested there for two consecutive years, until 

 a boy from the College went forth expressly to slay it with 



