THE ZOOLOGIST 



No. 896.—Fchniary loth, 1916. 



IGTERINE WARBLER ON MIGRATION OBTAINED ON 

 TUSKAR ROCK. WITH REMARKS ON THE STATUS 

 OF THIS SPECIES IN THE BRITISH ISLES. 



By Professor C. J. Patten, M.A., M.D., Sc.D. 



In the February number of the ' Irish Naturalist ' for 1915, 

 p. 42, I published a preliminary note to the effect that I had 

 received and identified an Icterine Warbler (Hypolais icterlna), 

 taken at Tuskar Light-Station, Co. Wexford. The bird was 

 picked up dead on the rock at 7 o'clock a.m., on Wednesday, 

 September 2nd, 1914, by Mr. Glanville, Principal Keeper. He 

 knew that it was a strange bird, and I am deeply indebted to 

 him for his care in preserving it in spirit for me until I 

 returned from Australia seven weeks later. The following is 

 an account of its bodily condition after I had removed it from 

 the spirit and dried its feathers : Emaciation had proceeded to 

 an advanced degree ; the muscles were flabby and greatly 

 wasted, the breast-bone was sharp and prominent, and all 

 traces of adipose tissue had disappeared. The specimen 

 weighed only 1 dr. 34 gr., having become reduced to about 

 one-fourth of its normal weight. As the bird was in a rather 

 poor state of preservation, many feathers over the rump and 

 on the abdomen coming away on patches of peeling epidermis, 

 and as the eyes were sunk in their sockets, one would have 

 surmised that it had lain dead on the rock for some days before 

 it was picked up. However, Mr. Glanville tells me that, in his 

 Zool. 4th ser., vol. XX., February, 1916. e 



