74 The Garden Warbler. 



fact that the Garden Warbler can be better recognized iu the general!}- wider 

 open spaces of the last mentioned haunts, having doubtless earned it the name 

 of hortensis. 



The nest of this bird is usually situated in tangled blackberr}-, or low bushes, 

 in copses or shrubberies ; but in kitchen gardens it may sometimes be seen in 

 gooseberry bushes, or among well-covered pea-sticks: amongst the undergrowth in 

 small woods and thickets it is by no means a rare object at the end of May or 

 early in June ; though, of course, less common than that of the Whitethroat : I 

 have never found it at any great altitude, usually about two or three feet above 

 the ground. The structure of the nest is externally somewhat looser and more 

 slovenly than that of the Blackcap, but the cup is beautifully formed within; the 

 outer walls are formed of dry bents, or goose-grass and other fibrous plants ; 

 sometimes mixed with a little moss and wool and lined with fine roots and horse- 

 hair. The eggs vary in number from four to five and are tolerably constant in 

 their colouring ; they are generally creamy, but sometimes pale greenish white, 

 blotched and spotted with pale greyish olive or rufous brownish, with sometimes 

 a few underlying spots of pearl grey, and a few blackish brown surface spots or 

 hair-lines ; some examples are very faintly marked, with all the markings sinuous 

 but arrauged longitudinally and covering the whole surface, others have somewhat 

 bolder nebulous patches of spots chiefly confined to the larger end, in others most 

 of the markings run together into a vague smoky cap at the larger end, leaving 

 the remainder of the ^gg almost white ; but the general effect of a crowd of 

 Garden Warbler's eggs impresses one with the conviction that they are extremely 

 uniform in tone : some clutches contain small eggs, others large, according to the 

 age of the parents; their average size is about the same as those of the Blackcap; 

 but the latter bird sometimes lays a much shorter and rounder e.gg than I have 

 ever found in a Garden Warbler's nest. 



The Garden Warbler sits somewhat closer than the Blackcap, only slipping 

 off her eggs at the last moment and then diving down over the edge of the nest, 

 so close to your hand that her wing will sometimes brush your fingers ; there is 

 therefore no difficulty, apart from the different character of the nest, in making 

 certain of the identity of any eggs which you take yourself, and there is only 

 one variety of the Blackcap's eggs which could by any chance be mistaken for 

 the product of Sylvia hortensis. 



The song of the Garden Warbler is exceedingly pleasing, less rich and full 

 than that of the Blackcap ; somewhat more plaintive, though rapidly enunciated ; 

 in tone reminding one a little of an extra good Canary, yet without the shrieking 

 notes which frequently mar the song of that bird. Excepting when rearing its 



