390 



the singular note of a bird had been remarked by himself, 

 the late Sir William Hooker and another friend, in the 

 marshes near Norwich for some time before a sight of the 

 singer could be obtained. These gentlemen called it the 

 " Keel-bird," for the same reason as prompted the fen-men to 

 give a similar name to the species last described. At length 

 the bird was discovered at Limpenhoe, and after much cau- 

 tion, for as soon as it was aware of any one's approach it 

 would drop from its perch on an alder into a patch of sedge 

 growing beneath, it was obtained. The specimen was sub- 

 mitted to Ternminck during his visit to London in 1819, and, 

 having been by him declared to be a variety of the Eeed- 

 Wren, was as such noticed by Sheppard and Whitear in their 

 Catalogue of Norfolk and Suffolk Birds (Trans. Linn. Soc. 

 xv. p. 18), and was labelled accordingly in the Norwich 

 Museum, to which it had been presented.* Subsequently a 

 second example was obtained by Mr. Brown at Strumpshaw 

 in the same county, and this is now in the Lombe Collection 

 at Wymondham. 



Up to this time the species had not been described or 

 recognized as distinct by any writer ; but in 1824, as quoted 

 in the last foot-note but one, the Italian naturalist Savi 



* In 1820 Temminck published the second edition of his ' Manuel d'Ornitho- 

 logie,' and therein stated (i. p. 194) of Sylvia cettii, La Marmora, a species 

 which, though figured long before (PI. Enl. no. 655, fig. 2), had only lately been 

 described, that " quelques individus ont aussi ete tues en Angleterre." This 

 assertion caused some surprise among British ornithologists, who were and are 

 unable to point to any example of Cetti's Warbler killed in this country. But 

 now that Mr. Stevenson has proved that the first Savi'fe Warbler was shewn to 

 Temminck in 1819, there can be little doubt of that distinguished zoologist having 

 on his return come to the erroneous conclusion that the specimen submitted 

 to him was a Cetti s Warbler, and having accordingly made the statement just 

 quoted under that belief. Savi did not discover his S. luscinioides, as will presently 

 be seen, until 1821, and there is quite enough likeness in the colour and 

 general aspect of the two species to render the mistake, here attributed to 

 Temminck, very probable if not excusable. On examination, however, the 

 difference is plain. Cetti's Warbler is the smaller bird, and belongs to a very 

 distinct group of Sylviidce. It has only ten tail-feathers, a well-developed 

 first primary, fully half as long as the second, which is considerably shorter 

 than the third, and the third is perceptibly shorter than the fourth, fifth and 

 sixth, the fourth and fifth being the longest in the wing. The relative pro- 

 portions of these feathers in Savi's Warbler will be seen in the text. 



