AN UNKNOWN WARBLER IN OXFORDSHIRE. 347 



" My general idea of the bird's colour and shape is much 

 clearer now. I do not believe that with a clear view one could 

 take him for a Chiffchaff or a Willow-Wren. He seems a larger 

 and stouter bird. The general colour of the upper parts is 

 decidedly dark ; head dark brown right down to the throat, and I 

 could detect no sign of an eye-streak. The under parts lighter, 

 but suffused with a very decided grey. The general appearance 

 of the bird was to me much more suggestive of the Garden- 

 Warbler than any other bird I know. 



"Once, while very near the spot where I thought the nest 

 would be, he descended with a curious fluttering flight, like a 

 falling leaf, into some low elder bushes, but did not remain there 

 long. He returned to them once or twice in the course of the 

 morning, but again did not remain there long. His movements 

 are generally abrupt. The wings as well as the tail quiver while 

 he sings, though less noticeably; the head is thrown back, and 

 turns slightly from side to side, and the mouth is very wide 

 open." 



This last observation of Mr. Maurice's, that the head is turned 

 slightly from side to side, is interesting when taken in connection 

 with the song, which is, or seems to be, always gently rising and 

 falling, and does not remain on the same musical plane, if I may 

 use the expression. Probably the effect is produced, as in the 

 case of the Grasshopper-Warbler, by these motions of the head. 

 All that he says of the appearance of the bird coincides closely 

 with the observations of Mr. Medlicott, myself, and others. Last 

 year, when I had but a slight acquaintance with the song, I was 

 inclined to think that this was an eccentric Garden-Warbler, and 

 I thought on one occasion that I heard in the song of that species 

 — or, rather, of a single individual of it — some sibilant notes 

 faintly reminding me of our mysterious bird. This year, how- 

 ever, I have been obliged to abandon this idea ; and in any case 

 it would be a most extraordinary circumstance if a Garden- 

 Warbler were to develop a song so entirely different from that of 

 its species in all its main characteristics, and so unique among 

 all British birds. Again, were the bird a Garden-Warbler, why 

 did we fail to find a nest of that species, after moving about so 

 often in the haunt of the bird, and examining every nest in every 

 stage of existence ? 



