THE BIRDS OF HELIGOLAND 301 



The example shot on the island, as related above, perfectly agrees 

 with several Indian specimens shown me by Seebohm during his 

 visit here, and with another from the same country in my possession. 



The best general idea of the plumage of this bird is conveyed 

 by imagining the upper parts of a S. sibilatrix in a pure and 

 fresh plumage, combined with the underside of a very pretty S. 

 hypolais. Excepting that in S. nitida the posterior flight-feathers 

 have no yellow edges, all the upper parts are of a uniform fresh 

 light-yellowish green, with a very slight admixture of verdigris, 

 the top of the head not being darker, nor the lower part of the 

 back lighter, than the rest. The whole underside, including the 

 under tail-coverts, is of a uniform pure and soft light sulphur 

 yellow, likewise with a very faint touch of verdigris colour. A broad 

 eye-streak, extending to the back of the head, is of the same colour, 

 as also is a band on the wing formed by the light tips of the large 



wing-coverts. 



The bill is pale yellowish flesh coloured (gelblich fleischfarben), 

 with the tip of somewhat darker horn colour. The feet are light 

 bluish grey. The measurements of the bird are as follows: 

 Total length, 4'68 ins. (119 mm.)] length of wing, 2'48 ins. 

 (63 mm.) ; length of the squarely-truncate tail, 1*96 in. (50 mm.) ; 

 length of tail uncovered by wings, '86 in. (22 mm.). The bill, 

 which is very broad at its base, is '47 in. (12 mm.), and the tarsus 

 measures -82 in. (21 mm.). 



115. Icterine Warbler [GARTEN-LAUBVOGEL]. 

 SYLVIA HYPOLAIS, Linn. 1 



Heligolandish : Groot Guhl-Fliegenbitter=ia?^e Yellow Warbler. 



Forty or fifty years ago this bird might have been met with on 

 the island in fairly large numbers almost regularly every May: 

 owing, however, to the changes in meteorological conditions which 

 have taken place since that time, it has by degrees become so rare 

 that one may nowadays count oneself lucky to find one, or at most 

 two, on exceptionally warm May days in the upper branches of 

 garden bushes. They are still rarer during the return migration in 

 August, one or more being met with now and again on the potato- 

 fields of the Upper Plateau. 



The only instance of its occurrence which I am able to record, is 

 that of a pair which, in the summer of 1876, built their nest in my 

 neighbour's garden, and reared five young birds. I used to see and 



1 Hypolais icterina (Vieill.). 



