390 BRITISH BIRDS. 



SYLVIA ORPHEUS*. 

 ORPHEAN WARBLER. 



(PLATE 10.) 



Ficedula curruca, Briss. Orn. iii. p. 372 (1760). 



Motacilla hippolais, Linn, amid Bodd. Table PI. Enl. p. 35 (17&3). 



Motacilla hortensis, Gmel. Syst. Nat. i. p. 955 (1788). 



Sylvia hortensis (Gmel), Lath. 2nd. Orn. ii. p. 507 (1790). 



Sylvia atricapilla (Linn.), var. y, Lath. Ind. Orn. ii. p. 507 (1790). 



Sylvia orphea, Temm. Man. dOrn. p. 107 (1815) ; et auctorum plurimorum 



Meyer, Naumann, (Bonaparte'), Cabanis, (Loche), Heuylin, Gray, Salvadori, 



Neivton, Dresser, &c. 



Sylvia grisea, Vieill. N. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. xi. p. 188 (1817). 

 Curruca orphea (Temm.), Boie, Isis, 1822, p. 553. 

 Sylvia crassirostris, Cretzschm. Hupp. Atlas, p. 49, pi. 33. fig. a (1826). 

 Curruca crassirostris (Cretzschm.), Bonap. Consp. i. p. 294 (1850). 



The Orphean Warbler was admitted into the British list on the strength 

 of an example said to have been obtained in a small plantation near 

 Wetherby on the 6th of July, 1848. The occurrence of this bird, which 

 was a female, and was said to be accompanied by its mate which was not 

 obtained, was recorded by Sir William Milner in the ' Zoologist ' for 1848, 

 p. 2588. A second example, a bird of the year, was caught in June 1866, 

 near Holloway, in Middlesex, and was kept alive by Sergeant- Major Hanley 

 for nearly six months. This occurrence was recorded by Mr. Harting 

 in the ' Yield.' for the 22nd of April 1871. One or more nests with eggs, 

 supposed to be those of this species, have been taken in England. Under 

 the most favourable circumstances, even supposing no error to have crept 

 into the history or identification of any of these occurrences, the Orphean 

 Warbler can only be looked upon as a very rare and accidental straggler 

 to our islands. 



On the continent the range of this bird is very restricted. It appears 

 to be a summer migrant to all the countries lying in the basin of the 



* The Orphean Warbler has been peculiarly fortunate in its name, which appears to 

 have fascinated both Professor Newton and Mr. Dresser to such an extent that instead of 

 carrying out the rules of the British Association regardless of consequences, as is their 

 wont, they have actually in this case thrown overboard the Stricklandian Code and 

 adopted the auctorum plurimorum principle, allowing themselves, for once in their lives 

 at least, to be guided in a question of nomenclature by common sense instead of orni- 

 thological pedantry. There can be no doubt that, according to the Stricklandian Code, 

 the bird should be called Sylvia hortensis, the name in common use for the Garden- 

 Warbler ; but the absurdity in carrying out the rules in this case is so transparent that 

 not even their most enthusiastic devotees have attempted it. 



