150 POLYGLOT WAEDLEB. 



INSECTlVOHiE. 



Family/ SYLVIIDyE. 



Genus Hypolais. fBrehm.J 



POLYGLOT WAKBLER. 



Hypolais polyglotta. 



Hypolais polyglotta, Vieillot. Schlegel. 



" " Des Murs; I. 0., pi. 57, I. Nee 



De Selys. 

 Sylvia hypolais, Gerbe. 



Specific Characters. — Wing does not reach to middle of tail; second true 

 wing primary the longest in the wing. Length four inches and three 

 quarters. 



This bird has been much, confounded with Sylvia icterina of Vieillot, 

 inserted in the first edition as Vieillot's Willow Warbler. The latter 

 having been taken in England, has been figured as a British bird 

 by Gould and Yarrell, and therefore is omitted here. The two birds 

 are, however, structurally distinct. S. polyglotta is the smaller of the 

 two, has a shorter wing which does not reach the end of the upper 

 tail coverts, and the first true wing primary is equal or nearly equal 

 to the fifth; while S. icterina may be distinguished from all other 

 similar species by the second true primary being shorter than the 

 third, and about equal in' length to the fourth. The wing of ^S*. 

 icterina also reaches beyond the middle of the tail, and these dis- 

 tinctions are constant in both male and female. 



The Polyglot Warbler is abundant in Morocco, Spain, and south- 

 west of France, is rare in Italy and Switzerland. The large species, 

 H. icterina, occurs at Malta and in Italy, and breeds all over Ger- 

 many and Holland, and has been taken in England. Thus the two 



