GARDEN WARBLER. 487 



exceedingly shy, taking short flights from one tree to another, 

 immediately on alighting emitting their cry of tic^ tlc^ or chic, 

 chic, seldom continuing long in one place, but searching among 

 the leaves for insects with all the agility of a Woodwren or 

 even a Titmouse. I noticed that they alighted by preference 

 on the Plane-tree, Acer Pseudoplatanus, among the broad 

 leaves of which it was difficult to get more than a glimpse of 

 them." 



Garden Warbler. Sylvia hortensi!^. 



" In the same wood, where I procured the Blackcaps," 

 says the same intelligent observer, " my attention was directed 

 to the song of a bird which I had never heard before, of sur- 

 passing beauty, combining with all the mellowness of that of 

 the Thrush and Blackbird, infinitely more variety and execu- 

 tion. On the following day I obtained a glimpse of this de- 

 lightful musician, and succeeded in shooting him, when he 

 turned out to be a beautiful specimen of Sylvia hortensis, of 

 whose occurrence in this part of the country I had not been 

 aware, and whose cranium will ere long form part of my col- 

 lection. The song of this bird pleased me more than that of 

 the Blackcap, or even the Nightingale, though I never heard 

 the latter to advantage. Were I to compare its notes to those 

 of any other bird, I know of none to which they bear a 

 greater resemblance than those of the Blackbird, when heard 

 at a considerable distance, on ' the crimsoned eve of a sum- 

 mer day.' But the song of the Fauvette is more exquisitely 

 modulated, and possesses more of that sweetness, which may 

 almost be said to be exclusively its own. I may here state 

 that an individual of Parus major, on the top of an enor- 

 mous Norway Fir, Pinus Abies, imitated the strain of the 

 Garden Warbler with such exactness as to induce me to com- 

 mit paricide, little imagining that I was shooting a poor Tit." 

 To this notice I have to add an account of the digestive organs, 

 and the measurement of the external parts. The tongue is 

 4^ twelfths long, sagittate and papillate at the base, with two 

 of the papilla? very large ; it is rather narrow, slightly concave 



