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AN UNKNOWN WARBLER IN OXFORDSHIRE. 

 By W. Warde Fowler, M.A. 



I feel that it is incumbent on me to put on record my expe- 

 rience this summer of a bird which I have been entirely unable 

 to identify, even with the help of several persevering young 

 friends, who did all they could to find the nest, and to note the 

 appearance and song. I was unluckily unable to bring any 

 ornithologist of larger knowledge than my own to bear upon the 

 problem ; Mr. Howard Saunders was unable to come, and Mr. 

 0. V. Aplin was away from his home in the county. But I can- 

 not help thinking that, without shooting the bird, they would 

 hardly have got further than I did ; and, as there was barely a 

 doubt that the bird was breeding, I would not myself take the 

 responsibility of destroying it. 



All ornithologists know how difficult, and even impossible, it 

 -is to identify our little Warblers with the aid even of strong 

 binoculars, unless we hear them sing, or track them to nest and 

 eggs. Especially is this the case with the tree-haunting Warblers 

 when the foliage is once fully out, and the bird of which I write, 

 with all the restless habits of a Phylloscopus, did not appear until 

 the second week in May, and then moved about continually in 

 the higher branches, so that, as a rule, we only saw it from below, 

 and in doubtful lights. But for its voice it would never have 

 attracted attention ; but that voice was so striking, and so unique 

 in all my experience in this country or the Continent, that even 

 when I sent a friend with instructions as to where to hear 

 it, being unable to accompany him myself, he recognized it 

 the moment he came within its range. I myself became so 

 thoroughly familiar with it that I should recognize it instantly 

 anywhere on the globe, and I can recall it in imagination with 

 perfect precision, though I cannot attempt to put it down on 

 paper, or in musical notation, any more than I could the song of 

 the Wood-Wren or the Grasshopper-Warbler. It is a sweet, 



