THE WILLOW- WARBLERS. 215 



pale yellow at the tips, forming a second wing-band ; primary- 

 coverts and quills dusky brown, externally greenish-yellow, 

 these margins not reaching to the base of the secondaries, so 

 that there appears a dusky patch on the wing formed by the 

 primary-coverts, and a second one at the base of the 

 secondaries, caused by the absence of yellow margins ; the 

 inner secondaries more broadly edged with white ; tail-feathers 

 dusky brown, edged with yellowish-green, and with a narrow 

 pale fringe along the tip of the feathers ; sides of face dusky 

 olive, with a dusky line through the eye and along the upper 

 edge of the ear-coverts ; eyelid and a distinct eye-stripe pale 

 yellow; under surface of body ashy-whitish, clearer on the 

 abdomen, with streaks of yellow on the breast ; the flanks 

 greenish, washed with yellow ; under wing-coverts white, 

 washed with yellow ; axillaries and edge of wing bright sul- 

 phur-yellow ; quills dusky below, whitish along the inner web ; 

 bill dark brown, paler at the base of the lower mandible ; 

 feet and claws brown ; iris hazel. Total length, 3*8 inches ; 

 culmen, o'4 ; wing, 2'i ; tail, 1*4 "j; tarsus, 0*7. 



Adult Female. Similar to the male. Total length, 3-5 

 inches ; wing, 2*15. 



Winter Plumage. Decidedly more olive than in the summer 

 time, when the plumage gets bleached and worn, and presents 

 an ashy appearance. The central streak on the crown becomes 

 whiter and more distinct, as does also the eyebrow, but the 

 double wing-bar is never completely abraded or lost. 



Range in Great Britain. The present species has occurred oc- 

 casionally in the British Islands, some seven specimens having 

 now been met with since the first was procured by the late Mr. 

 John Hancock, in Northumberland, on the 26th of September, 

 1838. Since that date the species has been procured in Lin- 

 colnshire, Gloucestershire, the Scilly Islands, in the Shetlands, 

 and even in County Kerry in Ireland. 



Range outside the British Islands. This is a Siberian species 

 which wanders westward in autumn, when it has been met 

 with near Berlin, Vienna, and Leyden, and has occurred at 

 least sixty times in Heligoland, over which island it appears to 

 pass nearly every autumn on migration, between the last .week 



