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REGULOIDES SUPERCILIOSUS.
Yellow-browed Warbler.

Motacilla superciliosa, Gmel. edit. Linn. Syst. Nat., tom. i. p. 9
Sylvia superciliosa, Lath. Ind. Orn., vol. ii. Oo OF
Phyllopneuste reguloi des, Hodgs. in Gray’s Zool. Misc., p. 44,
Reguloides superciliosus, Blyth, Zool., 1863, p. 8329.
Phyllobasileus superciliosus, Cab. Journ. fiir Orn., 1853, p. 81.
Regulus superciliosus, G. R. Gray, Cat. of Birds in Coll. Brit. Mus., p. 54.
Regulovdes proregulus, Jerd. Birds of India, vol. ii. part i. Deere

Regulus modestus, Hanc. in Annals of Natural History, 1838, vol. ii, p. 310.

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¥ Mucu confusion has arisen respecting the pretty species figured on the accompanying Plate, in consequence
of its having been regarded by many authors as identical with the bird obligingly sent to me by the late Baron
de Feldege, of Frankfort, and figured in my ‘ Birds of Europe ars) Regulus modestus, under the impression
that it was a newly discovered species.

The true home of the Reguloides superciliosus (the Yellow-browed Warbler of Latham) is in Asia; but it
is not confined to that quarter of the globe. Mr. Swinhoe has killed it in China; nearly every col-
lection from India contains examples ; it has been repeatedly obtained in many parts of the continent of
Europe ; according to the review of Drs. Blasius and Baldamus’s continuation of Naumann’s ‘Vogel Deutsch-
lands,’ in ‘ The Ibis’ for 1862, once or twice near Berlin, and nearly a dozen times in Heligoland ; and we
now know that it has occurred twice in England : hence it becomes necessary to give it a place in the ‘ Birds
of Great Britain.’ I have carefully compared the English specimens with others from the various localities
above mentioned, and I am quite unable to detect any differences between them, either in size, colour,
or markings.

The first occurrence of the bird in Britain was recorded in the ‘Annals of Natural History,’ vol. ii.,
by Mr. John Hancock, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, who shot it on the banks near Hartley, on the coast of
Northumberland, on the 26th of September, 1838, and who says :—‘‘Its manners, so far as I had an op-
portunity of observing them, were so like those of the Golden-crested Wren that I at first mistook it for
that species. It was continually in motion, flitting from place to place in search of insects, on umbelliferous
plants and such other herbage as the bleak banks of the Northumberland coast afford ; such a situation
could not be at all suited to the habits of this species, and there can be little doubt it had arrived at the coast
previous to, or immediately after, its autumnal migration.” Referring to this specimen in a communi-
cation to ‘The Ibis,’ dated Newcastle-on-Tyne, March 14th, 1867, Mr. Hancock says :—“In 1838 I
sent to the ‘ Annals of Natural History’ a notice of a small Wren, which I had shot at Hartley in the Sep-.
tember of that year, and which I then identified with the Regulus modestus of Mr. Gould’s ‘ Birds of Europe ;’
but I now find my bird to be distinct from the species there described and figured. The Rev. H. B. Tristram
has kindly favoured me with a view of a series of specimens of both species. The one is distinguishable
from the other by a broad belt of pale yellow across the rump; and that gentleman informs me that the
species so characterized was described by Pallas under the name of M€otacilla proregulus. The other is
given by Gmelin under the denomination of JZ superciliosa. Now my specimen has no such belt across the
rump, while that figured by Mr. Gould possesses this character. My bird, therefore, must stand as Reguloides
superciliosus.” :

In a note to this communication, the editor of ‘The Ibis’ (Professor Newton) remarks, ‘Mr. Swinhoe had
already shown, in the ‘ Proceedings of the Zoological Society’ for 1863, the distinctness of 2. superciliosus
and R. proregulus, which had been thought to be synonymous ; but he was not ae that the Regulus motlestis
of Mr. Hancock’s former notice and the Regulus modestus of Mr. Gould were specifically cif He rightly
identified Mr. Hancock’s specimen with 2. superciliosus, but quoted * Regulus modestus, Contd, = pee
under the impression, which, we believe, bas hitherto generally prevailed, that the bird shot in Northum-
berland and that obtained in Dalmatia were specifically identical.”

For a knowledge of the occurrence of a second example in England Iam eae to Ae pe T. W.
Huthwaite, a subscriber to the present work, who ina letter to me, dated “ Brockworth V el ae
Nov. 5th, 1867,” says :—‘* Mr. T. White, the birdstuffer of Cheltenham, has a ee aaa Lae
would wish to see and figure ; and I am sure he will readily let you have a ae of Mk ct ae F a a
to Mr. White, who at once forwarded it for my specie: and at the aan Se a
been shot by his son, Mr. J. T. White, within a mile of Cheltenham, on the 11th of Oc I ac