MELODIOUS WILLOW WARBLER. 
141 
hVSESSO RES. 
DENTIE OS TEES. 
SYLVIA DJE. 
MELODIOUS WILLOW WARBLER. 
Sylvia Hippolais. 
PLATE XXXVI. FIG. V. 
For the first notice of this species as a bird new to 
Britain, I have to apply to the pages of the “ Zoologist,” 
where it is recorded by Dr. Plomley, that the melodious 
Willow Wren, the true Hippolais of Continental authors, 
was killed at Eythorne, near Dover, on the 15th of 
June, 1848. 
It is abundant in Holland, and on the banks of the 
Rhine; its song is, I think, the sweetest carol I have 
ever heard, equalling, if not surpassing, that of the 
nightingale. 
Although in every way most closely allied to the 
other willow wrens, it differs from them strangely in its 
nidification, and the colour of its eggs. Its nest is 
more like that of a Salicaria than of a Sylvia. It is 
without a dome, and, instead of being placed upon the 
ground, is frequently at a considerable elevation. Mr. 
Rennie found one near Bonn, high up in the branches 
of a lilac tree. Naumann and Buhle, in their work 
on birds’ eggs, say * that the nest is placed in the 
forked branches of lower trees, and on bushes more 
open than usual; also on side branches of the thinner 
* I have to thank an old friend, the Rev. James Smith, of Monquhitter, for 
this translation from the German, which I have copied from the “ Zoologist.” 
