628 



2 



Obs. With regard to the barring on the tail I find that it is by no means always present, and the older 

 birds seem to have it least defined, whereas young freshly moulted examples have the bars quite clearly 

 defined. 



This comparatively little-known Warbler has a tolerably restricted range, being found in North- 

 western, East-Central, and Southern Europe during the summer season, and it both breeds and 

 winters in North Africa. 



In Great Britain it appears only to have occurred in the fen countries of Eastern England, 

 and is ere this doubtless quite extinct ; for most of the large fens have been drained off and 

 brought under cultivation. Long ago, when the fens extended over a vast tract of country, it 

 may probably have been tolerably numerous ; but ever since it was known as a distinct species it 

 has been rare. The first specimen ever brought to the notice of naturalists was undoubtedly, 

 however, a British-killed bird, obtained, Mr. Stevenson says, by the late Rev. James Brown at 

 Limpenhoe, Norfolk, in the early part of the present century, during the month of May. This 

 specimen was submitted to the inspection of Temminck when he was in London in 1819 ; and he 

 took it with him to the Continent to compare it with specimens in his collection, but, on returning 

 it, pronounced it to be a variety of the Reed-Wren ; and as such it was noticed by Messrs. Sheppard 

 and Whitcar in their ' Catalogue of Norfolk and Suffolk Birds,' and is now in the Norwich 

 Museum. Professor Newton further points out (Yarrell's Brit. Birds, i. p. 390) that there is 

 little doubt that Temminck mistook the specimen in question for Sylvia cettii, La Marm., which, 

 in the second edition of his ' Manuel d'Ornithologie,' he stated had been killed in England, 

 whereas Cetti's Warbler has never occurred in this country. Besides this specimen, one was pro- 



ured at Strumpshaw by a man of the name of Waters (who collected for the Rev. J. Brown), and 

 was given to the late Mr. Lombe; a pair were shot at South Walsham in 1843, and are now, 

 Mr. Stevenson states, in the Norwich Museum ; and one, he says, was obtained by the Rev. H. T. 

 Frere, of Burston, from the same locality. Mr. Stevenson himself possesses an example shot at 

 Surlingham on the 7th June, 1856 ; in Mr. Newcome's collection is a nest from near Yarmouth ; 

 and Professor Newton says that Mr. John Brown has heard it in the Feltwell fen. It has also 



iccurred in Cambridgeshire, where several nests have also been taken. According to Professor 

 Newton a pair were obtained in the Cambridgeshire fens by the late Mr. J. Baker in the spring 

 of 1840, and soon after that a pair were obtained from the same locality by Mr. Joseph Clarke, 

 of Saffron-Walden. The first nests were taken in May 1845, in a sedge-fen in the parish of 

 Milton, and were purchased by Mr. Bond ; and since that time nests and eggs have been 

 obtained from the same locality, from Burwell fen, Wicken fen, and Wood- Walton fen, in Hunt- 

 ingdonshire, now under cultivation, but whence Mr. Hudleston obtained a nest and eggs in 

 L849. Professor Newton states that it may be confidently asserted that the bird has not been 

 noticed anywhere in England besides the localities named ; and certainly it is unknown in Wales, 

 Scotland, or Ireland. It does not occur in Scandinavia, Northern Russia, or in Germany, but is, 

 or was, tolerably common in some parts of Holland ; and I well recollect, when in Rotterdam 

 some years ago, on my way to join my tutor, after having left school, seeing about a dozen nests 

 with eggs, in the possession of a well-known game-dealer in that town, who offered me the lot at 

 about a shilling an egg all round, the nests to be thrown in; but as he would not divide the lot, 

 and my finances were then at a rather low ebb, I did not purchase them. Mr. Labouchere 



