GREAT REED-WARBLER. 365 



Magazine of Natural History ' for August, 1847 (vol. xx. 

 p. 135), as follows : 



"A male specimen of this fine Warbler was shot, three 

 or four miles west of Newcastle, near the village of Swal- 

 well, by Mr. Thomas Eobson of that place, on the 28th of 

 last May. The attention of this gentleman, who is perfectly 

 familiar with the song of all our summer-visitants, was 

 arrested by a note which he had not before heard ; and after 

 some search he succeeded in getting a sight of the bird. It 

 was concealed in the thickest part of a garden hedge close to 

 an extensive mill-dam, which is bordered with willows, reeds 

 and other aquatic plants. It would scarcely leave its retreat, 

 and when it did so never flew far, and always kept close to 

 the herbage." This specimen, as Mr. Hancock has kindly 

 informed the Editor, is now in the possession of Mr. Thomas 

 Thompson of Winlaton, near the place where it was shot*. 

 According to Mr. Morris, who, however, has attributed the 

 foregoing as well as another reputed instance of the occur- 

 rence of this species to the larger Nightingale of eastern 

 Europe, before mentioned (page 320), an example of the 

 present bird was killed, May 4th, 1853, at a pondside near 

 Sittingbourne in Kent by Mr. G. Thomas. 



Two other examples were said in the last Edition of this 

 work to have been also killed in Kent, one between Tonbridge 

 and Sevenoaks, the other at Erith ; and a third is stated 

 (Zool. p. 4014) to have been obtained June 16th, 1853, at 

 Dagenham in Essex. All these came into the possession of 

 the late Mr. Green, a well-known dealer in birds and eggs, 

 but they were shewn when in the flesh to competent judges, 

 and there seems no reason to doubt their having been 

 specimens of the Great Keed- Warbler or Keed-Thrush, 

 to use its oldest English name. Mr. Gould, however, in 

 his ' Birds of Great Britain,' utters a warning respecting 

 them which should not be neglected, stating that to his 



* Mr. Newman (Zool. p. 3476) mentions, under the name of Sylvia tardoides, 

 a bird, said to have been shot near Dartford, May 8th, 1852, which he examined 

 in a fresh state, but he has since stated (Diet. Brit. Birds, p. 374) some facts 

 rendering it probable that the specimen was so called by mistake. 



