\IETLL()T’s willow WAllllLEK. 
59 
Fauvette des Foseaux, 
Fee-fin Icterine, 
Fecca-fin Itterino, 
Bdffon; pi. Eu]., 581. 
Of the Feench. 
Of the Italians. 
Specific Characters. — Above, olive grey; primaries and tail quills 
brown, bordered with olive grey; below, lore, neck, sides, and 
superciliary ridge yellow. Wings in repose reach to middle of 
tail; first primary rather longer than the fourth, and nearly equal 
to (but still longer than) the third, the second longest. 
Dimensions. — Mean of fifteen individuals measured by M, Z. 
Gerbe, reduced to English measurements: — Total length, from tip 
of beak to end of tail, 5.2 inches; from carpus to tip 3.04 inches. 
Tarsus one inch; beak from point to origin 0.44 inches; maximum 
depth (hauteur) of beak, 0.16 inches; maximum breadth of same, 
0.24 inches. 
This bird was first described as a new species by 
Yieillot, in 1817, for some time after which it seems 
to have undergone, in scientific works, many vicissitudes, 
— the usual fate of those subjects in natural history in 
which there exists a great family resemblance. It is in 
fact so closely allied to Sylvia hippolais, (Latham,) — a 
name unfortunately given by British writers to the 
Chiff-Chafi* — that M. Temminck’s designation and des- 
cription of that bird is really applicable to S. icterina. 
M. Temminck also made another mistake in figuring a 
large specimen in autumn plumage of Sylvia trochilus, 
and describing the same in the second edition of the 
‘^Manual” as S. icterina. The Prince of Canino also 
figured this bird in the “Fauna Italica” as Sylvia hip- 
polais; and the Honourable M. De Selys-Longchamps 
made a similar mistake in the “Faune Beige,” in 1842. 
It is to M. Z. Gerbe that we are indebted in the 
“Revue Zoologique” for 1846, and in the “Dictionary 
of Xatural History” for 1848, for restoring this bird 
to its proper place among the European species, and 
