the dartford warbler was first described by the welsh naturalist thomas pennant. he based his description on two specimens that obtained by the ornithologist, john latham in april 1773 on bexley heath, near dartford in kent. pennant asked latham to name the new and till then unnamed bird, and latham chose "sylvia dartfordiensis", or dartford warbler. the species was assigned the binomial name of "motacilla undata" by the dutch naturalist pieter boddaert in 1783 based on a coloured plate in edmé-louis daubenton's "planches enluminées d'histoire naturelle".