THE ZOOLOGIST 



No. 817.— July, 1909. 



BONELLFS WARBLER IN SWITZERLAND. 

 By W. Warde Fowler, M.A. 



These notes are put together for the benefit of those who 

 have not yet made the acquaintance of Phylloscopus Bonellii, the 

 only one of the four common Phylloscopi of Central Europe 

 which has never been observed in this country. It has been 

 long expected ; it is a hardy little bird, breeding in the Alps up 

 to some 5000 ft. above sea-level : it has occurred at least twice 

 on Heligoland, and a quarter of a century ago it was thought 

 to be extending its range northwards. Yet, so far as I am 

 aware, no one has ever found it in Great Britain or Ireland. 



It was always a favourite of mine in the time long past 

 when I used to be in Switzerland for a few days at least almost 

 every year in June or early July ; but since the death of my old 

 guide and naturalist friend Johann Anderegg I had not been 

 there until this June, and the only specimen of Bonelli that I 

 have seen in recent years was one which came on board the ill- 

 fated ' Argonaut ' as I was crossing in her from Sicily to Greece 

 on April 16th, 1905. This date, by the way, tallies well with 

 what Prof. Fatio writes (' Oiseaux de la Suisse,' i. 458) of its 

 arrival in the alpine region, that it reaches Switzerland in the 

 second half of April or even in May. I have myself met with it 

 on April 28th at Meiringen in a spot which I knew to be a 

 favourite breeding-place, and two days later I found it near 

 Sackingen on the southern border of the Black Forest. This 



Zool. 4th scr. vol. XIII., July. 1909. u 



