THE BIRDS OF FAIR ISLE 135 



AcKOCEPHALUs DUMETORUM, BlytKs Reed- Warbler. — 

 On the 29th of September 19 10, a small Warbler was 

 found by the Duchess of Bedford in a patch of turnips. 

 It only afforded a very brief view ere it flew off. It was 

 present in the same cover on the following day, and then 

 aroused suspicion that it might perhaps be something 

 uncommon. After a great hunt it was secured, and sent 

 to me. 



In colour it more resembles the Marsh- Warbler {A. 

 palustris) than the Reed- Warbler i^A. streperus), but is 

 a little duller in colour and usually smaller in size, 

 though the smallest Marsh- Warbler and the largest 

 dumetor^tm overlap. The wing formula of Blyth's bird 

 differs from both the British species just mentioned in 

 having the second primary shorter than the fifth. 



Blyth's Reed- Warbler is a new bird for Western 

 Europe, not having previously, I believe, been found 

 nearer than Russia. It is a summer visitor to regions 

 from St Petersburg and Archangel eastwards to the 

 Yenisei (Western Siberia), and the Himalayas 

 (Kashmir to Nepal) ; and winters in the plains of India, 

 in Ceylon, and from Sind to Assam. 



LocusTELLA LusciNioiDES, Suvt's Warbler. — The 

 visit of a pair of these birds to Fair Isle must be 

 regarded as one of the most remarkable events in the 

 annals of British ornithology for many years. These 

 birds appeared on the 14th May 1908, and frequented 

 the grassy sides of a small burn. They were extremely 

 shy, and for several hours baffled all attempts to secure 

 one of them for the purposes of identification. At last, 

 however, one, a female, was obtained and its unlooked- 

 for indentity revealed. This bird was once a summer 

 visitor to the fens of East Anglia, but ceased to be a 



