528 



nisoria and orphea, but can be distinguished from either of these by other characters besides the form 

 of the beak. From S. nisoria it differs in having the upper parts tinged with olive-green, whereas in 

 S. nisoria they are light grey, becoming slate-grey on the back ; in &. nisoria second and third quiUs 

 are about equal, whereas in H. olivetorum the third is considerably longer than the second. From 

 Sylvia orphea it differs in having the flanks and under tail-coverts tinged with grey, whereas in 

 S. orphea these parts are washed with rusty yellow. 



This Warbler, though first named by Strickland in 1837, was, it appears, really discovered in 

 1835 by Colonel H. M. Drummond-Hay. This gentleman, in reply to a letter from me, asking 

 for any particulars he could furnish as to its discovery, writes as follows: — "You are quite 

 right in supposing that I was the original discoverer of this species, having first noticed it in 

 the island of Corfu in the spring and summer of 1835 ; and I think it was that autumn or the 

 spring of the following year that poor Strickland paid a visit to the islands, when I showed him 

 the bird in question, as also various other species I had collected, among which was also a bird 

 with which I was then unacquainted, but which I now fully believe to have been Lindermayer's 

 Salicaria elaica. This bird and the Olive-tree Warbler were most conspicuous from the beauty 

 and power of their song, especially the latter, which, from the top spray of an old olive-tree, 

 would make the woods resound with his melody ; and from the resemblance some of his notes 

 bore to the first bar of an old Scottish tune (' Tulloch-Gorum '), he passed among us (I mean 

 some of my old brother officers and sportsmen) by the sobriquet of the ' Tulloch-Gorum bird,' 

 and the other one the ' Lesser Tulloch-Gorum bird.' In those days, when ornithology was not 

 so well known as it now is, and facilities for communicating discoveries were not so readily 

 obtained, I lost the opportunity of making known many discoveries of our rarer European birds. 

 Strickland found my bird in Zante in the spring of 1836, and described it under the name of 

 olivetorum, he most probably not having recollected seeing it in my collection; and under these 

 circumstances, and never having described it myself, I must waive any claim of prior discovery." 

 In the Annals & Mag. Nat. Hist. (I. c.) Colonel Drummond-Hay (then Mr. Drummond) states 

 that it is " common in Corfu, arriving about the 15th May, and moves to the south in August." 

 Mr. Strickland met with it in the island of Zante ; and I have lately examined the type obtained 

 by him there, and now in his magificent collection at Cambridge. 



According to Mr. Howard Saunders (Ibis, 1871, p. 213), it has been met with as far west as 

 Valencia, in Eastern Spain ; and he has examined a specimen in the Museum at Valencia, which 

 he then, without a specimen for comparison, pronounced to be the present species ; but, without 

 desiring to question his identification, I may remark that the locality appears to me to be somewhat 

 far out of the range of the Olive-tree Warbler on the northern side of the Mediterranean ; but as it 

 is stated to breed in Algeria, it is by no means impossible that it should occur in Spain. Mr. C. A. 

 Wright (Ibis, 1869, p. 255) remarks that it is said by Mr. Grant to be " common " in Malta ; but 

 he himself never met with it, and disbelieves the statement as to its occurrence there ; nor, indeed, 

 do I find it recorded from any of the countries north of the Mediterranean between Greece and 

 Spain. In the former of these countries it appears to be extremely numerous ; and, according to 

 Lindermayer, it arrives in that country late in April or early in May, far later than the spring 

 migration of other birds takes place, and it leaves again very early, about the first half of August. 



According to Count von der Miihle (Monogr. eur. Sylv. p. 92), " it is a lively and very 



