OF SELBORNK. 81 



differ more in their notes, and that constantly, than 

 those two that I am acquainted with ; for the one has 



Hippolais belongs by priority of appellation, and whether it be or not a 

 British species. 



The name Hippolais appears to have originated with Linnaeus in his 

 Fauna Suecica. In his description he states that the bird to which he 

 gave it is perhaps the female of his Motacilla Curruca, the lesser white 

 throat ; that its body is ash-coloured above, ashy white underneath, its 

 throat white, its wings, when closed, ferruginous above, and the outer 

 margins of its quills ferruginous. Without entering into a further detail 

 of his description (Fauna Suecica, p. 90), I may assume that what I have 

 quoted is sufficient to show that no one of the five birds above mentioned 

 is the Motacilla Hippolais of Linnaeus, because no one of them agrees with 

 these particulars. It is quite apparent that Motacilla (or Sylvia, which 

 is a generic name of later introduction) Hippolais belongs to the fruit- 

 eating group of birds, and is closely allied to Sylvia Curruca (more pro- 

 perly called Curruca Silviella}, if indeed it be not that identical species 

 in a particular state of plumage. The name was first applied to a Bri- 

 tish bird by Dr. Latham in 1783, with a note that he was indebted for the 

 account of it to the Rev. Mr. Lightfoot ; and it is not clear that he him- 

 self ever saw the bird described by him as Mot. Hippolais or lesser petty- 

 chaps. The particulars given by him do not agree with any one of the 

 five wrens above mentioned, and appear to be an amalgamation of Lin- 

 naeus's description with that which he had received from Mr. Lightfoot ; 

 but as it is clear that no one of the wrens found in England, nor the con- 

 tinental bird of M. Temminck, admitting the possibility of its coming here 

 occasionally, is entitled to Linnaeus's name Hippolais^ it is quite unne- 

 cessary to conjecture what Mr. Lightfoot's bird was. 



In the former edition of these notes I pointed out the chiff chaff as 

 overlooked by continental, and confounded with the bird supposed to be 

 Hippolais by English, writers, and I described it minutely, and named it 

 Sylv. loquax. I am now, by means of specimens kindly communicated to 

 me by Mr. Bennett, enabled to clear up the confusion in which these birds 

 have been so long involved. It is quite clear that Sylv. rufa is an English 

 bird, and that Sylv. loquax has been confounded with it, both here and 

 abroad, though very different. In Shaw's Zoology, the name Hippolais has 

 been applied to the chiff chaff, as it has also been in the later works of 

 Mr. Selby and the Rev. L. Jenyns, the name rufa being given in the last 

 of these as synonymous with it; but all these applications are erroneous. 

 I have now before me four species killed in this country. The first is 

 Sylv. sylvicola of Montagu, the wood wren ; it is the Sylv. sibilatrix of 

 Bechstein, whose name must give place to that of Montagu, published 

 many years before with an accurate description of the species. The 

 second is Sylv. Trochilus. These two species are well known, and no 

 mistake can arise concerning them. In Sylv. sylvicola the first quill, 

 which is diminutive in all the species, is almost obsolete, the second 

 shorter than the third, and scarcely shorter than the fourth ; the prolong- 

 ation of the third being greater in some specimens than in others. In 



G 



