resemblance to the brown colour of that of the Garden Warbler,
which has been frequently called the Greater Petty-
chaps, as shown by the synonymes.
The adult male has the beak dark brown; the irides
brown ; over the eye a light-coloured streak, sometimes rather
obscure ; the head, neck, back, wings, and tail-feathers,
nearly a uniform ash-brown; the quill-feathers rather darker
than the other parts, the edges of the tertials rather lighter;
the chin, throat, breast, belly, and under tail-coverts, dull
brownish white, tinged with yellow; under wing-coverts
primrose-yellow; under surface of wing and tail-feathers
grey; legs, toes, and claws, dark brown, almost black.
The whole length of the bird about four inches and three-
quarters. From the carpus to the end of the longest primary
two inches and three-eighths : the first feather short ; the
second about as long as the seventh, and neither of them so
long as the fifth or sixth ; the third and fourth nearly equal
in length, and the longest in the wing.
The plumage is similar in the two sexes. Young birds,
like the young of the species last described, are more tinted
with green and yellow than very adult birds.
I t should be borne in mind, that the British Bird to
which the term hippolais has usually been attached in the
works of British Naturalists, is not the hippolais of Continental
authors; and before quitting this little group, I
may here mention that the Hon. and Rev. W. Herbert,
in his notes to a recently published edition of White’s
Natural History of Selborne, has mentioned two other
Warblers; but as I have never yet been so fortunate as to
obtain a specimen of either of them, I only here refer to
that gentleman’s account. I venture respectfully to request
to be allowed an opportunity of examining any British Warbler
which may be considered to differ from those figured
and described in this History of British Birds.
1NSESSORES. SYLVIADÆ.
DENTIROSTRES.
TH E DARTFORD WARBLER.
Sylvia Dartfordiensis,
Motacilla Provincialis,
Dartford Warbler, P enn. Brit. Zool. vol. i. p. 530.
t) ,, Montagu, Ornith. Diet.
„ Bewick, Brit. Birds, vol. i. p. 239.
Curruca,
Melizophilus
»
Sylvia
t> „ F lem. Brit. An. p. 70.
Selby, Brit. Ornith. vol. i. p. 219.
. ,, J enyns, Brit. Vert. p. 112.
,, Gould, Birds of Europe, pt. ix.
Bec-Jin Pittechou, T emm. Man. d’Ornith. vol. i. p. 211.
Melizophilus. Generic Characters.—Beak slender, upper mandible slightly
bent from the base, and finely emarginated near the tip ; under mandible
straight, shorter than the upper, and shutting within it. Nostrils basal, lateral,
cleft longitudinally ; base of the beak surrounded with hairs. Wings short:
the first quill-feather very small; the second shorter than either of the next four
feathers ; the fourth and fifth the longest in the wing. Tail elongated, cuneiform.
Tarsi strong, and longer than the middle toe ; claws of moderate length,
sharp.