/ aces | 
216 BRITISH BIRDS. [vor. xr. 
five days there. The bushes usually haunted by Warblers had been 
largely stripped of their leaves by violent rain-storms at the end of 
August, and 1t was therefore much easier to get clear views of birds 
seen in them. 
On the 12th there were a number of Phylloscopi in the bushes, some 
of them uttering the familiar note. To my astonishment I found 
that each of these, of which I got good views, had quite dark, blackish 
legs. On the 13th, at one of the farms on Romney Marsh, I again 
found a collection of Phylloscopi, mostly making this note, and all 
with dark legs, except one obvious Willow-Wren, which was uttering 
the proper Willow-Wren note. On the 15th I again had good views 
of several in the Dungeness bushes. In addition to the other distine- 
tions noted last year I noticed that these birds showed a yellowish 
patch on the side. 
Later in the month at Cranbrook I heard and saw single birds 
uttering this note, on September 27th and 30th. The former was for a 
short time in company with an ordinary Chiffchaff, but was apparently 
passing up a small valley, working south-west. 
After my visit to Dungeness I wrote about these birds to my brother 
in France, and in his last letter, replying to this, he wrote, “‘ I should 
like to have further details about the Phylloscopus with the shrill note : 
I got a very good view of one the other evening, and found its legs 
were of a greyish-brown colour, though possibly they looked paler 
owing to the sun shining on them; it had a much more decided 
eyestripe than an ordinary Chiffchaff which was working along the 
hedge in the opposite direction (so that the two met and chased for a 
moment), but this did not reach behind the eye; it also seemed to me 
to have more pale yellow on the edge of the wing, and was certainly less 
brown on the sides.”’ 
I can hardly doubt that this bird seen by my brother, on 
September 27th, and another heard the same day, within fifty miles 
of Dungeness, were of the same race as those I have seen and heard, 
and it would seem probable that they are all really Phylloscopus 
collybita abietinus. But having already made one mistake, I will not 
plunge headlong into what may prove to be another. 
It seems to me almost certain that there must have been more 
birds of this race passing through the south-east of England this 
autumn than normally ; but I hope in future years other ornithologists 
on the east and south-east coasts will be on the look-out for shrill 
voiced Phylloscopt. : 
It is rather humiliating to have to confess oneself in error over the 
identification of birds belonging to the family to which I have always 
given the closest attention ; and I am afraid such a mistake is likely to 
lead those who have been inclined to trust my word in the past to doubt 
it in future. I can only apologize once more to the Editors of British 
Birds for having induced them to allow the mistake to appear in their 
pages. H. G. ALEXANDER. 
