BOOTED REED WARBLER. 15 



throat clear white; moustache pale brownish white, and no streak 

 above the eye.' 



"Schlegel, in his * Revue,' has the following. In the Berlin Museum 

 is found a specimen of this rare species which he describes thus, — 

 1 Length of F. trochilus; colouring similar to S. arundinacea. Wing 

 two inches and four lines; tail two inches; tarsus nine lines and a 

 half; middle toe five lines; claws large, hinder ones more curved. 

 Beak moderate, strongly compressed laterally, thence much higher than 

 broad. Tail somewhat rounded. Leg in front having four scales, of 

 which the second takes up two thirds of leg, upper and under ones 

 small, the third double the size of the lowest. Colour of legs dull 

 pale olive, tending to white below. Wing and tail feathers grey 

 brownish, the latter with lighter outer edge and tips. The third to 

 sixth wing primary narrowed on the outer edge.'" 



I copy the following from the "Pvesa i Nordvestra Hyssland, Som- 

 maren 1869," of Dr. Meves, of Stockholm:— "With this bird I was 

 as unlucky as with the last named. Riding in a telega, during rainy 

 weather, I heard on the 4th. of July, seven versts (four and two 

 thirds English miles) from the Tichmanskoi Station, near the Lake 

 Latscha, the strong and fine, but to me unknown song of a Sylvia. 

 The bird hovered over a marshy -meadow grown over with willows 

 and alders, and flew singing from bush to bush. I looked at the 

 little greyish bird at a distance of about twenty-four feet, and thought 

 at first I had before me a specimen of S. trochilus. He flew a short 

 distance and then recommenced his song. I fired at him, but unfor- 

 tunately he fell amongst some bushes and tall grass, where my efforts 

 of finding him were made in vain. After awhile I heard another of 

 the same species, but this also I failed to procure. I was exceedingly 

 sorry, but had no other choice but to continue my journey to the 

 station. There I stayed the whole of the succeeding day, but the 

 rain increasing made it impossible for me to make any extensive 

 excursion. The song bore a certain resemblance to that of the 

 Hijpolais icterina, but assimilated also to that of the Sedge Warbler. 



"When I returned to St. Petersburg, I saw in the Museum three 

 specimens of Sylvia scita, and do not doubt that this was the bird I 

 had seen at the place named above. 



"The synonymy of this bird seems to be tolerably well cleared up 

 by recent ornithologists, but as Dr. Eversmann, in the 'Journal fur 

 Physiologic,' 1853, tries to defend the view that Hotacilla salicaria, 

 Pall., is identical with S. arundinacea, Briss., I may be allowed to call 

 attention to the following points : first, Pallas (/. c.) says distinctly that 

 Motacilla salicaria is smaller than Motacilla sylvia (S. curruca, Lath.); 



