or Willow-War biers. 
69 
Where the dimensions given in the following descriptions 
do not show so much variation, it may arise from my not 
having been able to procure access to a sufficiently large 
series. 
In order satisfactorily to determine the various species of 
this genus, an acquaintance with the birds in a state of nature 
seems more than ordinarily necessary; and this is probably 
the reason why this group has not been brought into better 
order by our cabinet ornithologists. 
The following attempt to reduce this refractory genus into 
something like order is the result of the comparison of about 
four hundred skins from the collections of the British Museum, 
Lord Tweeddale, Canon Tristram, Messrs. Dresser, Swinhoe, 
Brooks, von Homeyer, the Indian Museum, and my own 
collection. 
I am especially indebted to my friends, Mr. H. E. Dresser 
for assistance in working out the intricate details of the syn¬ 
onymy, and to Mr. W. E. Brooks for skins of various Indian 
species, which have been carefully compared with Blythes 
types in the Calcutta Museum. 
In the synonymy I have carefully avoided the pedantry of 
a long catalogue of useless references; and I have endeavoured 
to make the descriptions of the birds as short and as easy of 
comparison as possible. Much remains to be done in the geo¬ 
graphical distribution; and doubtless a few years' researches 
may detect many errors in, and make some additions to, our 
present knowledge of this interesting group of birds. 
j ~ 1. Ehylloscopus borealis (Blasius). 
Sylvia ( Phyllopneuste) eversmanii, MiddendorfF, Sib. Beise, 
p. 178 (1851, nee Bonap.); Eadde, Reisen im Slid. v. Ost- 
Sibir. ii. p. 263 (1863, nec Bonap.). 
Phyllopseustes eversmanii , Homey er, Cab. Journ. f. Orn. 
1872, p. 202 (nec Bonap.). 
Phyllopneuste borealis, Blasius, Naumannia, 1858, p. 313. 
Phyllopseustes borealis, Meves, Cab. Journ. f. Orn. 1875, 
p. 429. 
Phylloscopus sylvicultrix , Swinhoe, Ibis, 1860, p. 53. 
