H y po la is ic t e r in a (Vieillot*).
T H E I C T E R IN E WAR B L ER .
Sylvia hippolais.\
H y po la is , C. L. Brehm —Bill stout, very wide at the base, the edges
straight, somewhat compressed towards the tip, which is slightly emarginated.
Nostrils basal, oblique, oval and exposed. Wings rather long and pointed, the
first quill very short, the third usually the longest. Tail moderate, rounded,
square or slightly forked. Legs with the tarsi short, the feet small, and the
claws short but much curved.
O n tlie occurrence of this addition to the British Fauna,
I was favoured by the late Dr. Plomley with the information
that an- example was killed at Eytliorne, near Dover, June
15th, 1848, the person who shot it having been attracted
by its extraordinary loud and melodious song. The specimen
is now in the collection of Dr. Scott of Chudleigli, but
* Sylvia icterina, Vieillot, Nouv. Diet. d’Hist. Nat. xi. p. 194 (1817).
t Motacilla hippolais (by mistake), Linnieus, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 330.
J Hippolais (by mistake), C. L. Brehm, Isis, 1828, p. 1283.
through an unfortunate accident in a very imperfect condition.
At a meeting of the Royal Dublin Society, January
30th, 1857, Dr. Carte, as noticed in the Society’s ‘ Journal ’
(i. p. 440), announced the occurrence of a second British example
of this species. This was shot June 8th, 1856, by Mr.
J. G. Rathborne at Dunsinea, on the banks of the river Tollta
in the county Dublin, and by him presented to the Society’s
Museum. Both this and the Kentish specimen before mentioned
having been liberally entrusted to the care of Mr.
Dresser, were exhibited to the British Association at Brighton,
August 20th, 1872, and determined by him and several
competent ornithologists then present, to be examples of the
Sylvia icterina of Vieillot—a point, as will immediately be
seen, of no small importance.
The species of the genus Hypolais, some six or seven in
number, form a group of Warblers which, though in coloration
so much like the Willow-Wrens as to have been frequently
associated with them, differ a good deal in their
general habits and entirely in their mode of nidification and
the character of their eggs, while it must be allowed that
structurally they closely resemble the Reed-Warblers, to
which they seem to be most nearly allied. The present
species, H. icterina, being also the Motacilla hypolais * of
Linnseus, has for a long time and by many authors been confounded
with another, II. polyglotta, though the differences
between them, pointed out originally by Vieillot and afterwards
by MM. Gerbe and CEillet des Murs, seem to be sufficiently
valid. At the first glance the deeper and brighter
yellowish tints of tliei former serve to distinguish it, and
closer inspection will shew that it is larger and has a considerably
longer wing, which extends beyond the middle of
* Linnfieus, indeed, as quoted in the last foot-note but one, wrot3 hippolais,
following what was perhaps originally the chance mistake of some old writer—
a mistake that has been widely copied. Bonaparte seems to have first pointed
out that the vulgar spelling was wrong. There can be no doubt about the orthography
: uwoXa.U and IvriXuis are two birds mentioned by Aristotle ; the first,
probably so called from its creeping under stones and being the common nurse of
the Cuckoo, was most likely the Hedge-Spanow ; the second, from its settling
upon stones, was, Prof. Sundevall thinks, the Wheatear.
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