ICTERINE WARBLER. 361 



through an unfortunate accident in a very imperfect condi- 

 tion. At a meeting of the Koyal Dublin Society, January 

 30th, 1857, Dr. Carte, as noticed in the Society's ' Journal ' 

 (i. p. 440), announced the occurrence of a second British ex- 

 ample of this species. This was shot June 8th, 1856, by Mr. 

 J. G. Rathborne at Dunsinea, on the banks of the river Tolka 

 in the county Dublin, and by him presented to the Society's 

 Museum. Both this and the Kentish specimen before men- 

 tioned having been liberally entrusted to the care of Mr. 

 Dresser, were exhibited to the British Association at Brighton, 

 August 20th, 1872, and determined by him and several 

 competent ornithologists then present, to be examples of the 

 Si/lcia icterina of Vieillot a point, as will immediately be 

 seen, of no small importance. 



The species of the genus Hypolais, some six or seven in 

 number, form a group of Warblers which, though in colora- 

 tion so much like the Willow- Wrens as to have been fre- 

 quently associated with them, differ a good deal in their 

 general habits and entirely in their mode of nidification and 

 the character of their eggs, while it must be allowed that 

 structurally they closely resemble the Reed- Warblers, to 

 which they seem to be most nearly allied. The present 

 species, H. icterina, being also the Motacilla hypolais* of 

 Linnaeus, has for a long time and by many authors been con- 

 founded with another, H. polyglotta, though the differences 

 between them, pointed oat originally by Vieillot and after- 

 wards by MM. Gerbe and (Eillet des Murs, seem to be suffi- 

 ciently valid. At the first glance the deeper and brighter 

 yellowish tints of the former serve to distinguish it, and 

 closer inspection will shew that it is larger and has a con- 

 siderably longer wing, which extends beyond the middle of 



Linnreus, indeed, as quoted in the last foot-note but one, wrote hippolais, 

 following what was perhaps originally the chance mistake of some old writer 

 a mistake that has been widely copied. Bonaparte seems to have first pointed 

 out that the vulgar spelling was wrong. There can be no doubt about the ortho- 

 graphy : uroiais and imXa/c are two birds mentioned by Aristotle ; the first, 

 probably so called from its creeping under stones and being the common nurse of 

 the Cuckoo, was most likely the Hedge-Spar/ow ; the second, from its settling 

 upon stones, was, Prof. Sundevall thinks, the Wheatear. 



VOL. I. 3 A 



