352 BRITISH BIRDS. 



ACROCEPHALUS PHRAGMITIS *. 

 SEDGE-WARBLER. 



(PLATE 10.) 



? Ficedula curmca sylvestris, Briss. Orn. iii. p. 393 (1760). 



? Motacilla schcenobaenus, Linn. Syst. Naf. i. p. 329 (1760). 



Motacilla salicaria, Linn, apud Tunst. Orn. Brit. p. 2 (1771). 



Sylvia salicaria (Linn.*) apud Lath. Gen. Sun. Suppl. i. p. 287 (1787). 



? Sylvia schoenobaenus (Linn*), Lath. Ind. Orn. ii. p. 510 (1790). 



Sylvia phragmitis, Bechst. Orn. Taschenb. p. 186 (1802); et auctorum pluri- 

 moruin Wolf, Temminck, Naumann, Menetries, Jenyns, Eversmann, Nordmann, 

 (Koch}, (Boie), (Brehm), (Macgittivray), (Schlegel), (Kaup), (Selbij*), (Gould), 

 (Keyserlmg), (Blasius), (Thompson*), (Lindermayer*), (Hat-tiny), (Bonaparte), 

 (Degland), (Gerbe), (Loche), (Sahadori), fyc. 



Acrocephalus phragmitis (BecJist.*), Naum. Nat. Land- und Wass.- Vog. nordl. Deutsckl., 

 Nachtr. iv. p. 202 (1811). 



Muscipeta phragmitis (Bechst.), Koch, Syst. baier. Zool. i. p. 163 (1816). 



Sylvia schcenobaenus (Linn.*), Vieill. Faun. Franq. i. p. 224 (1820). 



Calamoherpe phragmitis (Bechst.*), Boie, Isis, 1822, p. 552. 



Curruca salicaria (Linn.), apud Fleming, Brit. An. p. 69 (1828). 



Calarnodus phragmitis (Bechst.*), Kaup, Naturl. Syst, p. 117 (1829). 



Calamoherpe tritici, Brehm, Vog. Deutschl. p. 449 (1831). 



Calamoherpe schoenobaenus (Linn.*), Brehm, Vog. Deutschl. p. 450 (1831). 



Salicaria phragmitis (Bechst.*), Selby, Brit. Orn. i. p. 201 (1833). 



Calamodyta phragmitis (Bechst*), Bonap. Comp. List B. Eur. fy N. Amer. p. 12 

 (1838). 



Calamodyta schcenobeenus (Linn.*), Gray, Hand-l. B. i. p. 209, no. 2964 (1869). 



Acrocephalus schoenobsenus (Linn.*), Newton, ed. Yarr. Brit. B. i. p. 376 (1873). 



Calamodus schoenobsenus (Linn.*), Blanf. East. Pers. ii. p. 199 (1876). 



Although there can be no doubt that Linnaeus was acquainted with the 

 Sedge- Warbler, yet his diagnoses are so vague that it is impossible to say 

 whether he intended to designate it by the name of Motacilla schcenobeenus 

 or Motacilla salicaria Vieillot, Sundevall, Brehm, and Newton identifying 

 it with the former, and Tunstall, Donovan, Latham, Leach, Forster, and 

 Fleming with the latter. The first clear definition seems to have been that of 

 Pennant, who described and figured the bird in 1766 under the name of the 



* In my opinion no possible good can arise, and much confusion must be caused, by 

 rejecting the name in common use for the Sedge- Warbler, which was well denned 

 by Bechstein, in favour of the ill-defined name supposed to have been given to it by 

 Linnaeus. I admit that the evidence of the ' Fauna Suecica ' leaves little room for doubt 

 that Linnaeus intended to describe the Sedge- Warbler ; but his description was so meagre 

 that it met with the neglect that it deserved. 



