PHYLLOSCOPUS NITIDUS. 



(BRIGHT GREEN WILLOW-WARBLER.) 



Sylvia hippolais, Jerdon, Madras Journ. xi. p. 6 (184.0, nee Linn.). 

 Phylloscopus nitidus, Blyth, Journ. As. Soc. Beng. xii. p. 965 (1843). 

 Hippolais swainsoni, Hodgs. in Gray's Zool. Misc. p. 82 (1844). 

 Begulus nitidus (Blyth), Gray, Gen. of B. i. p. 175 (1848). 

 Abromis nitidus (Blyth), Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av. i. p. 290 (1850). 

 Phyllopseuste nitida (Blyth), Gray, Hand-1. of B. i. p. 215. no. 3050 (1869). 

 Acanthopneuste nitidus (Blyth), Zarudny, Bull. Soc. Mosc. iii. p. 778 (1890). 

 Phylloscopus (Acanthopneuste) nitidus, Blyth, Pleske, Ornithographia Rossica, ii. p. 172 

 (1891). 



Figures notabiles. 



Lorenz, Beitr. z. Kennt. d. Orn. Faun. Nords. Kauk. pi. ii. fig. 1 ; Pleske, Orn. Boss, 

 pi. ii. fig. 2. 



Ad. corpore supra flavescenti-viridi, vertice concolore : subths sulphureo : alis fasciis duabus notatis : remige 

 seeunda sexta breviore. 



Adidt Male (Muddapur, March 21st). Upper parts including the crown bright green, underparts sulphur- 

 yellow ; a broad sulphur-yellow stripe passes from the base of the bill above and behind the eye ; median 

 wing-coverts tipped with pale yellow, forming a somewhat obscure band across the wing, but the larger 

 coverts are distinctly tipped with the same colour, forming a clearly denned second alar bar; quills 

 dark brown, margined with grass-green; tail brown, the feathers, except the two middle rectrices, 

 margined externally with grass-green : bill brown, the lower mandible flesh-coloured at the base ; legs 

 plumbeous brown ; iris dark brown. Total length 4 - 65 inches, culmen 0'5, wing 2'4, tail l - 9, tarsus 

 0"7; second primary shorter than the sixth. 



The female does not appear to differ from the male in plumage. The autumn plumage differs from that 

 worn in the spring in being somewhat deeper in tone of colour, and the margins to the wing- and 

 tail-feathers are rather more clearly defined. 



Phtlloscopus nitidus is another Asiatic species which recent research has shown to occur regularly 

 within the limits of the Western Patearctic Region. 



It has occurred once on Heligoland, a single example having been shot there on the 11th 

 October, 1867, by Mr. Ludwig Gatke ; and as this was the only instance of its occurrence 

 within our limits when I wrote the ' Birds of Europe,' I did not deem it advisable to include it. 



Regarding the range of this Warbler in Russia, Mr. Pleske writes (Orn. Ross. p. 174) as 

 follows : — " Thanks to the information kindly furnished by Prof. Menzbier, I can point to the 

 possibility of Schatiloff 's specimen of Sylvia rufa or Sylvia middendoi'ffi, from the neighbourhood 



m 2 



