BOOTED REED WARBLER. 77 



small, the third double the length of the first. All the tail 

 feathers rounded, the middle one somewhat shortened, and edged 

 with pale grey brown. Length four inches and two-fifths; wings 

 two inches and four lines; tail two inches; tarsi nine lines and a 

 half; middle toe five lines. 



There has been niucli written about- this little bird, 

 whose history appears to be as follows. — Pallas, in his 

 "Zoography of Asiatic Russia," describes a small Re.ed 

 "Warbler, under the designation of Motacilla salicaria; 

 the Warblers in those days being mixed up with the 

 Wagtails. In the history of Eversmann's travels to 

 Bucharest, Lichtenstein, the German naturalist, has 

 noticed a bird, now in the Berlin Museum, labelled 

 '"Sylvia caligata, Siberia, Eversmann," in the following 

 words: — "A new species, and distinct from all our 

 European Reed Warblers, which Pallas, under the 

 mistaken name of Motacilla salicaria, very fully and 

 correctly described." 



It resembles Sylvia arundinacea, Latham, in its 

 youthful plumage, but it may be distinguished as follows : 

 ■ — "The length from the tip of the beak to the rump 

 is only two inches and five lines; the tail is about two 

 inches one line; the beak is much smaller, only five 

 lines and a half long. The tarsus is nine lines; the 

 superciliary streak not clearly developed, and it is 

 booted to the root of the toes with scales. The con- 

 struction of the wing is also different: the second 

 primary is of the same length as the sixth, andv the 

 third, fourth, and fifth are the longest, whilst in 

 Arundinacea the fifth is shorter than the second; also 

 the fourth, fifth, and sixth are contracted in the outer 

 web. The legs are of a bright colour, and the first 

 year's plumage of Ai'undinacea is much paler. 



