964 Mr. BlytJis Report for December Meeting, 1842. [No. 143. 



Mr. Gould from the only specimen then known, which was procured 

 in Dalmatia, and of which a second individual has since been met with 

 in England (vide An. Nat. Hist. II, 310), is by no means rare in the 

 neighbourhood of Calcutta during the cool season and for some time 

 afterwards. The mesial streak along the crown is not always well 

 defined, and it often requires some trouble to make this appear 

 distinctly in the preserved skins. Scarcely any trace of it exists in 

 the old stuffed specimen which I styled Regulus inornatus; mistak- 

 ing the species, as Mr. Gould had previously done, for a member of 

 that genus : but I have since examined numerous fresh specimens, 

 and do not in the least now hesitate in assigning it to Phylloscopus 

 of Boie, or the restricted Sylvia of various modern British Ornitholo- 

 gists. The average size of a male is four inches long, by six to six and 

 a quarter across, wing two inches, and tail an inch and a half. 

 Upper mandible dusky, the lower yellow except at tip ; and legs 

 rather pale brown, without any plumbeous tinge : irides dark. In the 

 published admeasurements of the British-killed specimen, the length of 

 the tail is given as but an inch and one-sixteenth, which is the only 

 dimensional discrepancy noticeable from the specimens before me ; 

 but it is probable that this is a misprint for an inch and seven- 

 sixteenths, the more especially as the wings are stated to reach within 

 three-quarters of an inch of the end of the tail, which is the case with 

 those obtained here. From the described brightness of the yellow 

 parts, I am inclined to think that the specimen killed in Northumber- 

 land was a bird of the year (shot in September), whereas mine are all 

 adults, having comparatively dull plumage (as in various other species 

 of Phylloscopus, Ph. sibilatrix constituting an exception). The crown 

 and upper-parts have, in the worn plumage, but a slight greenish 

 cast, which increases on the scapularies, and particularly on the lower 

 part of the back and rump, which are tolerably bright greenish ; 

 superciliary streak whitish, but very slightly tinged with yellow, and 

 chiefly so anterior to the eye ; adjoining this is an inferior dusky streak 

 posterior to the eye, and on a level with that organ ; mesial line 

 of the crown generally faint, and often scarcely discernible : the 

 markings on the wings are nearly those of a Regulus, presenting 

 two whitish cross bars slightly tinged in general with greenish-yellow, 

 the posterior broader and formed by the tips of the greater coverts, 



