believes Daulias to be the name which any one strictly following
the rules for Zoological Nomenclature, adopted by the
British Association for the Advancement of Science, must use,
and accordingly has no hesitation in employing it in this work,
though aware that the proceeding is novel.
In the east of Europe a second species of Nightingale
occurs, which, though long known to German bird-fanciers as
the Sprosser, was first specifically distinguished by Bechstein
as Sylvia philomela and by other authors is called Philomela
turdoides or P. major, while it has received the English
name Thrusli-Niglitingale.* This bird, whose regular appellation
it seems should be Daulias philomela, extends its
summer range further to the northward than our D. luscinia,
and reaches the southern parts of Sweden: westward it appears
not to cross the Rhine valley, and further south it is limited
by much the same longitude, though Dr. Cara says it occurs
in Sardinia. Eastward it would seem to occur in India,
Mr. Jerdon (Ibis, 1869 p. 356) having recognized a specimen
in the Lucknow Museum.
The vignette represents the nest of our Nightingale.
* Failing to detect the blunder of an anonymous writer (Zool. p. 1876) who
applied this name to a very different bird, Mr. Morris has introduced the •‘Thrush-
Nightingale ” to his readers as a British species, when the recorded occurrences
on which he chiefly relies notoriously refer not to Philomela turdoides, Blyth,
but to Sylvia turdoides, B. Meyer, of which, though under a far older name, an
account will by-and-bye be given here. There is no sufficient reason for supposing
that the larger Nightingale of eastern Europe has ever visited this country.
R u t ic il l a su e c ic a (Linnaeus*).
THE BLUETHROAT.
Phoenicura Suecica.
R u t ic i l l a . C. L. Brehmf.—Bill slender, compressed towards the point, a little
deflected and very slightly emarginated. Nostrils basal, supernal and nearly
round. Wings moderate ; the first quill sh o rt; the second equal to the sixth ;
the third, fourth and fifth, nearly equal, and one of them the longest. Legs
slender, the tarsus longer than the middle toe, and covered in front by a single
scale ; outer toe a little longer than the inner.
Two instances only of tlie occurrence in England of this
pretty Warbler liad been recorded when, in 1838, the species
was included in the original edition of this work. The first
bird, a fine cock, was shot on the Town-Moor of Newcastle-
on-Tyne, May 20th, 1826, by Mr. Thomas Embleton, who
gave it to the Museum of that town, where it still is. This
fact was first noticed in 1827 by Mr. Fox in his ‘ Synopsis
* Motaeilla suecica, Linmeus, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 336 (1766).
t Isis, 1828, p. 1280.
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