THE YELLOW-BROWED WARBLER. 

 Phylloscopus superciliosus (J. F. Gmelin). 

 Plate 6. 



The first British example of the Yellow-browed Warbler was obtained by the 

 late John Hancock, in Northumberland, a few miles north of the mouth of the 

 Tyne, in September 1838. Since that date a considerable number have been 

 recorded, along our eastern coasts at different times, and especially on the Isle of 

 May and Fair Isle, nearly all during the autumn migration. Numbers have also 

 been taken on Heligoland at the same time of the year (Gatke). Its summer home 

 is in Siberia, and it winters in India and China. Seebohm found it near the Yenesey, 

 and describing the nest in his British Birds (vol. i. p. 449), says : " It was built in 

 a slight tuft of grass, moss, and bilberries, semi-domed, exactly like the nest of 

 our Willow Warblers. It was composed of dry grass and moss, and lined with 

 reindeer-hair." The six or seven eggs are white, spotted at the larger end with 

 reddish-brown. 



Mr. H. L. Popham, writing in The Ibis (1898, p. 496), says: "It is quite the 

 commonest of the small forest birds. It arrived at Yeniseisk on June i, and 

 subsequently (till the limit of trees was reached) was daily heard and seen working 

 its way up the willows and firs in search of food. It is a lively and tame little bird, 

 but the song becomes rather wearisome." 



The Yellow-browed Warbler is insectivorous. 



It may be distinguished from the other Warblers by the distinct pale yellow 

 eye-streak, extending from the base of the bill to the nape, and by the two bars of 

 a like colour across the wing ; there is also an inconspicuous stripe of dull brownish- 

 green along the top of the head. 



In the female the colours are similar to those of the male. 



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