THE TREE WARBLERS. 2IQ 



the chest; the sides of the upper breast washed with olive- 

 green, the flanks also slightly washed with greenish ; auxiliaries 

 and edge of wing yellow ; under wing-coverts white, washed 

 with yellow ; quills dusky-brown below, whitish along the inner 

 web ; bill dark brown above, yellow below (in skin), the lower 

 mandible horn-colour in life ; feet and claws pale lead-colour ; 

 iris hazel. Total length, 5*2 inches ; culmen, 0-55 ; wing, 2-95 ; 

 tail, 2'o; tarsus, 0*8. 



Adult Female. Does not differ from the male in colour. Total 

 length, 5 '4 inches; wing, 3-0. 



NOTE. The large size, the flattened and Flycatcher-like bill with its 

 yellow lower mandible, and the bright yellow under surface, seem to dis- 

 tinguish this species from any of the Willow-Warblers in this country. 



Range in Great Britain. Only an accidental visitor, which has 

 not occurred more than half-a-dozen times This is the more 

 curious, as the species ranges on migration to the south of 

 Africa like the Willow-Warbler, and, on its return to Europe, 

 is plentiful almost within sight of the shores of Great Britain. 

 Of the five recorded examples of H. hypolais in this country, 

 four have occurred in summer, viz., at Holderness, in Lincoln- 

 shire, in May, 1891 ; near Dover, in June, 1848; near New- 

 castle, in June, 1889; and in co. Dublin in June, 1856, the 

 only autumn-killed example being the one procured by Mr. 

 Power, near Blakeney, in Norfolk, in September, 1884. 



Range outside the British Islands. In the south of Europe this 

 Warbler arrives towards the end of April, but does not reach its 

 northern habitats till the early part of May. It is generally dis- 

 tributed over Central Europe, and inhabits Denmark, Holland, 

 Belgium, and the north-east of France during the summer, and 

 ranges, so Mr. Howard Saunders believes, to about the line of 

 the Somme, to the west of which river, as indeed throughout 

 the greater part of France and the Peninsula, it is replaced by 

 H. polyglotta. In Southern Scandinavia the Tree-Warbler 

 is common, but becomes rarer to the northward, reaching 67 

 N. lat. in Norway, and about 65 in Sweden. It occurs near 

 Archangel, and is found in the Ural Mountains up to 57 N. 

 lat. Mr. Seebohm says that it has been found to the east of 

 the Urals, in the valley of the Tobol river ; but Dr. Pleske re- 

 marks that if the species really occurs in Siberia it can only be 



