358 SYLVIADJJ. 



the first time in the British Isles, of the Melodious Willow 

 Wren, Sylvia hippolais of Temminck, which was killed at 

 Eythorne, near Dover, on the 15th of June last. It is a 

 beautiful specimen, and in the most perfect plumage, and 

 the person who shot it was attracted by its extraordinary 

 loud and melodious song ; it is a species which has never 

 been found in England, and Mr. Gould states, in his Birds 

 of Europe, that it is somewhat singular that this species, 

 so familiar to every naturalist on the Continent, and which 

 inhabits the gardens and hedgerows of those portions of the 

 coasts of France and Holland that are immediately oppo- 

 site to our own, should not, like the rest of its immediate 

 congeners, more diminutive in size, and consequently less 

 capable of performing extensive flights, have occasionally 

 strayed across the Channel and enlivened our glens and 

 groves with its rich and charming song, which is far supe- 

 rior to that of either of the three other species of the 

 group, and only equalled by those of the Blackcap and 

 Nightingale." 



This pleasing songster, called polyglotta (many tongues) 

 by M. Vieillot, from the great variety which distinguishes 

 the voice of this bird, appears to be numerous as a species, 

 and is distributed generally over the European continent, 

 from Sweden to the shores of the Mediterranean, particu- 

 larly in Holland, France, Germany, and from thence south- 

 ward to Italy. Unlike the three well-known species of 

 this pretty group, which visit this country every summer, 

 and which have acquired with us the general name of 

 Willow Warblers or Willow Wrens from their prevailing 

 green colour, all three of which construct dome-covered 

 nests, like that of the true Wood Warbler, figured as a 

 vignette on the page immediately preceding the present 

 subject, and which they almost invariably place upon, or 

 very near, the ground, the Melodious Willow Warbler 



