310 BLYTH ON THE BRITISH FRUIT-EATING WARBLERS. 



RANZANI, Horticola polyglolta, BLYTH), a bird which, in the make of 

 its bill, very much resembles the nightingales. None of the above-men- 

 tioned birds, however, attack indiscriminately all kinds of fruit in the 

 voracious and determined manner which may be observed in the black- 

 cap, the garden-warbler, and the babillard. During the fruit season, 

 the two former of these birds hardly touch any other kind of food ; 

 indeed, from the time of their arrival (and the blackcap often visits us 

 as early as the latter end of March) to the period of their departure, 

 they subsist very largely on vegetable food ; ivy and privet berries, and 

 the like, supplying the place of garden fruit during the spring. The 

 whitethroat also is a keen devourer of raspberries, currants, and the 

 other smaller fruits ; and I have been informed of an instance of 

 the Dartford or furze warbler being taken with a limed fishing-rod, 

 while regaling itself on some mealy soft pears, in a garden, by the side 

 of a common : in confinement, the furze-warbler is as fond of all kinds 

 of fruit as its congener the whitethroat is. As these birds are, there- 

 fore, more decidedly fructivorous than any of the other European 

 Sylvmnce, the term " fruit-eating" warbler is, perhaps, a better desig- 

 nation for them than " sylvan ;" though neither name is quite as 

 definite and exclusive as could be wished. It would, perhaps, be better 

 to restrict entirely the appellation " warbler" to the birds of this genus, 

 and to call the aquatic species by the general name of " sedge-birds." 



The genus Ficedula will contain five British species, and in all pro- 

 bability a sixth ; though the latter (named by the Hon. and Rev. W. 

 Herbert, the East Woodhay warbler, Curruca bidehensis ) has never yet 

 been obtained for examination. Four of the others, namely, the gar- 

 den-warbler (Ficedula hortensis), the blackcap (F. atricapilla), the 

 babillard (F. garmla), and the whitethroat (F. cinered], are to be 

 found, I believe, more or less common throughout the country. Of 

 these, the blackcap and the whitethroat are abundant every where; the 

 two others are less common ; but in no part of the south of England 

 can they, I think, be considered rare birds ; excepting, perhaps, in 

 Cornwall, and the west of Devonshire, a district which many of the 

 summer birds of passage do not visit at all. In some places near the 

 metropolis I have observed these four species to be about equally 

 abundant. The Dartford or furze warbler (Curruca provincialis and 

 Dartfordicnsis of authors), but which, as it is neither confined to 

 Dartford nor to Provence, to England nor to France, I should prefer 

 naming from its habits (Ficedula ulicicola), is an extremely local 

 species, to be found, sparingly, on many of the commons near London, 

 and very abundantly on some similar situations in several of the 



