158 NOUTIIEEN WILLOW WBEN, 



INSECTIVOR^. 



FamUij SYLVIIDJE. 



Genus Phylloscopus. f F. Boie.J 



NORTHERN WILLOW WREN. 



Phylloscopus horealis. 



Fhyllopnetcsie borealis, Blasius; Ibis, 1859, p. 459. 



" " Middendorff; Reise, ii., pi. 16, 1,2,3. 



" " Naumann; Vogel, pi. 375, i. 



Sylvia Eversmanni, Middendorff. Nee Bonaparte. 



Phyllopneuste sylvicultrix, Swinhoe. 



" kennicotti, Baird. 



" flavescens, G. R. Gray. 



Specific Characters. — First or bastard primary much shorter than in S. 

 trochilus. Yellow band on the wing, formed by the tips of the great wing 

 coverts. Extreme tips of tail feathers sharply defined. Under tail coverts 

 long, yellov/ish white. 



The term Phyllopneuste, applied by autliors to tliis group of the 

 Sylviidoe, has been shown to be a nonsense word, void of all meaning; 

 I have therefore followed the plan of joining the Willow "Warblers 

 .and Goldcrests under the generic term of Phylloscopus. This bird 

 is a transitional species between the two hitherto separated genera of 

 Phyllopneuste and Regulus. 



This species was first described by Professor Blasius in "Naumannia" 

 for 1858, in a letter on the '^ Ornithology of Heligoland," a trans- 

 lation of which is given in the "Ibis" for 1832. It is not the bird 

 named Sylvia Ecersmanni by Bonaparte, which is the variety marked 

 /3 of Sylvia trochilus, and is simply the S. icterina of Eversmann, 

 re-named Sylvia Eversmanni by Bonaparte — because he did not like 

 the name of icterina! 



