July, 1906. 
The I?ish NahiralisL 
157 
THE MELODIOUS WARBLER IN IRELAND. 
BY RICHARD M. HARRINGTON, LI..B , F.I,.S. 
On September 23rd, 1905, Mr. P. Pavlosky of Old Head light- 
house, Kinsale, Co. Cork, wrote : — "Enclosed you will find a 
bird which I have shot, and I think it is a very rare one." 
When the specimen arrived it was evidently something good. 
Being too much damaged for stuffing, it was made into a skin 
by Edward Williams and forwarded to London for identifica- 
tion, as the series of European Warblers in the Dublin 
Museum is far from perfect. The longer and flatter bill and 
larger size of the bird at once separated it from the Willow 
Wren and Wood Warbler — and as the bastard primary exceeded 
in length the primary coverts it probably was not an Icterine 
Warbler. 
The books led me to suspect it was the Melodious Warbler 
{Hypolais polyglotta) — though the specimen agreed rather 
better with a skin of H. pallida in the Dublin Museum. How- 
ever the matter was settled by Mr. Ogilvie-Grant who, writing 
from the Natural History Museum, said " undoubtedly 
Hypolais polyglotta.'' 
Though the bird is new to Ireland and has only been added 
to the British list of late years — having probably been con- 
founded with Hypolais icteri?ia — it is a species which might 
be expected to occur having regard to its continental distri- 
bution. Mr. Aplin^ and Mr. Howard Saunders^ suggest that the 
bird heard on May 29th, 1886, at Coolattin, Co. Wicklow, by 
Rev. A. Ellison^ may have been this species. S. polyglotta 
does not penetrate as far north as 5". icteri?ia and its range in 
France is more western. It is satisfactory to have its occur- 
rence in Ireland authenticated by an undoubted specimen in 
spring rather than by an immature autumn straggler return- 
ing south, for the problem of its summer residence is more 
interesting. 
Fassaroe, Bray. 
1 Irish Naturalist, 1897, p. 222. ^ Manual of British Birds. 
3 Zoologist, 1886, p. 333. 
A 
