517 



HYPOLAIS POLYGLOTTA. 



(MELODIOUS WARBLER.) 



Sylvia polyglotta, Vieill. Nouv. Diet. xi. p. 200 (1817, syn. excl.).. 

 Hippolais salicaria, Bp. Comp. List, p. 13 (1838, partim). 

 Ficedula hypolais, Keys. & Bias. Wirbelth. Eur. p. 56 (1840, partim). 

 Hypolais polyglotta, Gerbe, Rev. Zool. vii. p. 440 (1844). 

 Ficedula polyglotta, Schlegel, Vog. Nederl. p. 136 (1854-58). 



Folosa, Portuguese ; Carisalero, Spanish. 



Ad. capite summo, nucha et corpore supra cinereo-olivaceis, pileo et fronte saturatioribus et vix brunneo 

 adumbratis : alis et cauda saturate et sordide brunneis, remigibus et tectricibus alarum superioribus 

 vix. pallidiore marginatis : stria superciliari flava, regione parotica brunnescente olivaceo lavata : 

 corpore subtus dilute flavo : rostro saturate brunneo, mandibula flavicante : iride fusca, : pedibus sordide 

 brunneis. 



Adult Female (Malaga, 18th June). Upper parts dull greyish olive, rather darker and brownish on the 

 crown and forehead ; wings and tail dull dark brown, the quills and wings-coverts having very narrow 

 paler outer margins ; lores and a line over the eye sulphur-yellow ; auriculars washed with olive-brown ; 

 entire underparts pale lemon-yellow ; flanks and sides of the neck washed with pale brownish or greyish 

 olive ; upper mandible brown, lower mandible dull yellowish ; iris brown ; legs dull greyish brown. 

 Total length about 4^ inches, culmen 0'6, width of mandible at base 022, wing 2 - 5, tail 2 - 05, tarsus 

 0"85, first primary small, but 018 longer than the primary coverts, second rather shorter than the 

 sixth, Ihird and fourth equal, being also the longest. 



Adult Male. Undistinguishable from the female. 



Obs. Mr. E. von Homeyer appears to consider that Hypolais preglii, Frauenf., may be the present species, 

 or at least something very close to it ; but most ornithologists agree in referring it to H. pallida. 

 Herr von Homeyer states (J. f. O. 1859, p. 204) that it is coloured like Hypolais icterina? but has the 

 form of H. pallida. I have not had an opportunity of examining the type, and am therefore unable 

 to state with certainty to which it should be referred. I have also been unable to refer to any figure 

 that I know for certain to be of Hypolais polyglotta, as it has been so greatly confused with H. icterina, 

 which is the species that has generally been figured. 



The present species, the western representative of the Icterine Warbler, with which it has 

 continually been confused, appears to have a very restricted range, being found only in Western 

 Europe and North-western Africa, migrating southward in the winter, at which season of the 

 year it has been met with. 



Baron De Selys-Longchamps informs me that it is very rare in Belgium, where he has only 

 met with it on one or two occasions, its ally (Hypolais icterina) being, on the other hand, 



2g2 



