MELODIOUS WILLOW WARBLER. 
MELODIOUS WILLOW WREN. 
Sylna. hippolais, TEMMINOK. 
Sylva. Sylva—A wood. Hecncla: e 
Tut Melodious Willow Warbler appears to be dispersed 
throughout the greater part of the European continent, being 
found from the shores of the Mediterranean to Sweden. 
F. Plomley, Esq., M. D., F. L.8., of Maidstone, in Kent, 
recorded in the ‘Zoologist,’ pages 2238-9, the first occurrence 
of this bird in Britain, but only a ‘flying visit;’ one having 
been obtained at Eythorne, near Dover, in that county, on 
the 15th. of June, 1848. It came into the possession of Mr. 
Chaifey, of Dodington, also in Kent, who obligingly drew my 
attention to it when I saw his excellently preserved collection. 
‘It is somewhat singular,’ says Mr. Gould, writing before 
the occurrence of the above-named specimen, ‘that this species, 
so familiar to every naturalist on the continent, and which 
inhabits the gardens and hedgerows of those portions of the 
coasts of France and Holland which are immediately opposite 
our own, should not, lke the rest of its immediate congeners, 
more diminutive in size, aud consequently less capable of 
performing extensive flights, have occasionally strayed across 
the Channel, and enlivened our glens and groves with its rich 
and charming song, which is far superior to that of either of 
the three other species of the group.’ 
‘Its food consists of insects, such as aphides, and other small 
kinds to which are added caterpillars, etc.’ 
‘Those who have not had an opportunity of listening to 
the song of this little tenant of the grove, can scarcely form 
