REGULOIDES SUPERCILIOSUS. 
Yellow-browed Warbler. 
Motacilla superciliosa, Gmel. edit. Linn. Syst. Nat., tom. i. p. 975. 
Sylvia superciliosa, Lath. Ind. Orn., vol. ii. p. 526. 
Phyllopneuste reguloides, Hodgs. in Gray’s Zool. Misc., p. 44. 
Reguldides superciliosus, Blyth, Zool., 1863, p. 8329. 
Phyllohasileus superciliosus. Cab. Journ. fur Orn., 1853, p. 81. 
Regulus superciliosus, G. R. Gray, Cat. of Birds in Coll. Brit. Mus., p. 54. 
Reguloides proregulus, Jerd. Birds of India, vol. ii. part i. p. 197. 
Regulus modestus, Hanc. in Annals of Natural History, 1838, vol. ii. p. 310. 
Much confusion has arisen respecting the pretty speeies figured on the aceompanying Plate, in consequence 
of its having been regarded by many authors as identical with the bird obligingly sent to me by the late Baron 
de Feldegg, of Frankfort, and figured in my ‘ Birds of Europe ’ as Regulus modestus, under the impression 
that it was a newly discovered species. 
The true home of the Reguldides superciliosus (the Yellow-browed Warbler of Latham) is in Asia ; but it 
is not confined to that quarter of the globe. Mr. Swinhoe has killed it in China ; nearly every col- 
lection from India contains examples ; it has been repeatedly obtained in many parts of the continent of 
Europe ; according to the review of Drs. Blasius and Baldamus’s continuation of Naumann’s ‘ Vogel Deutsch- 
lands,’ in ‘ The Ibis ’ for 1862, once or twice near Berlin, and nearly a dozen times in Heligoland ; and we 
now know that it has occurred twice in England : hence it becomes necessary to give it a place in the ‘ Birds 
of Great Britain.’ I have carefully compared the English specimens with others from the various localities 
above mentioned, and I am quite unable to detect any differences between them, either in size, colour, 
or markings. 
The first occurrence of the bird in Britain was recorded in the ‘ Annals of Natural History,’ vol. ii., 
by Mr. John Hancock, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, who shot it on the banks near Hartley, on the coast of 
Northumberland, on the 26th of September, 1838, and who says; — “ Its manners, so far as I had an op- 
portunity of observing them, were so like those of the Golden-crested Wren that I at first mistook it for 
that species. It was continually in motion, flitting from place to place in search of insects, on umbelliferous 
plants and such other herbage as the bleak banks of the Northumberland coast afford ; such a situation 
could not be at all suited to the habits of this species, and there can be little doubt it had arrived at the coast 
previous to, or immediately after, its autumnal migration.” Referring to this specimen in a communi- 
cation to ‘The Ibis,’ dated Newcastle-on Tyne, ]\)arch 14th, 1867, Mr. Hancock says: — “In 1838 I 
sent to the ‘ Annals of Natural History’ a notice of a small Wren, which I had shot at Hartley in the Sep- 
tember of that year, and which I then identified with the Regulus modestus of Mr. Gould’s ‘ Birds of Europe ; ’ 
but I now find my bird to be distinct from the species there described and figured. The Rev. H. B. Tristram 
has kindly favoured me with a view of a series of specimens of both species. The one is distinguishable 
from the other by a broad belt of pale yellow across the rump ; and that gentleman informs me that the 
species so characterized was described by Pallas under the name of Motacilla proregulus. The other is 
given by Gmelin under the denomination of M. superciliosa. Now my specimen has no such belt across the 
rump, while that figured by Mr. Gould possesses this character. My bird, therefore, must stand as Reguldides 
superciliosus." 
In a note to this communication, the editor of ‘ The Ibis ’ (Professor Newton) remarks, “ Mr. Swinhoe had 
already shown, in tlie ‘ Proceedings of the Zoological Society ’ for 1863, the distinctness of R. superciliosus 
and R. proregulus, which had been thought to be synonymous ; but he was not aware that the Regulus modestus 
of Mr. Hancock’s former notice and the Regidus modestus of Mr. Gould were specifically different. He rightlv 
identified Mr. Hancock’s specimen with R, superciliosus, but quoted “ Regulus modestus, Gould,” as a synonym, 
under tbe impression, which, we believe, has hitherto generally prevailed, that the bird shot in Northum- 
berland and that obtained in Dalmatia were specifically identical.” 
For a knowledge of the occurrence of a second example in England I am indebted to the Rev. T. W. 
Huthwaite, a subscriber to tlie present work, who in a letter to me, dated “ Brockworth Vicarage, Gloucester, 
Nov. 5th, 1867,” says : — “ Mr. T. White, the birdstuffer of Cheltenham, has Bl Regulus which, I presume, you 
would wish to see and figure ; and I am sure he will readily let you have a sight of it.” I immediately wrote 
to Mr. White, who at once forwarded it for my inspection, and at the same time informed me that it had 
been shot by his son, Mr. J. T. White, within a mile of Cheltenham, on the 11th of October previous, and 
