78 



BOOTED REED WARBLER. 



Keyserling and Blasius also describe the Berlin 

 specimen minutely, and consider it synonymous witli 

 Pallas's Motacilla salicaria, wliicli view is also taken 

 by Schlegel in an elaborate analysis in his "Revue 

 Critique." Lastly, Count Miihle, after careful exami- 

 nation of the specimen in the Berlin Museum, identifies 

 it with a specimen he had killed in Greece. Eversmann, 

 having in 1842-3 published an addenda to Pallas's 

 "Zoography," described the bird which he had dis- 

 covered as Sylvia scita. Thus, though the identity 

 of Motacilla salicaria and S. scita may be still open to 

 doubt, and is in fact doubted by Count Miihle, it is 

 quite certain that the latter bird, captured in Greece, 

 and described and figured in his work, is identical 

 with the S. scita of Eversmann, thus establishing clearly 

 its title to the distinction of an European species. 



The Booted Warbler has only been found in Siberia, 

 Russia, and Greece. Eversmann found it on the banks 

 of the rivers in the Ural Mountains. It is described 

 by Pallas as inhabiting the banks of rivers, among the 

 willows. It hangs on the stems of the trees, and is 

 continually in motion, and singing most agreeably. It 

 constructs in the forks of the branches a nest composed 

 of grass, and it lays four or five eggs. 



Thienemann figures the e^s^ from specimens sent from 

 the Yolga, but I think this source too doubtful for 

 reliance. Altogether we want a great deal more infor- 

 mation about this species. 



The upper parts are of a pale and dirty olive-colour; 

 the inferior whitish, but the throat is of a pure white. 

 Primaries and tail brownish grey; middle tail feathers 

 with lighter edges, the external ones edged with whitish 

 on both sides: the following are only edged with this 

 colour on the inner barbs and at the tip. Beak black, 



