50



Philip Gosse—-The Icterine Warbler



This bird proved to be by far the finest p>erformer 1 ever heard, as

although 1 afterwards listened to many Icterine Warblers during the

summer of 191G I heard none to compare with the first one.


By June 8 Icterines were becoming quite numerous, and on this

day I witnessed a most furious battle between one and a cock Black¬

cap Warbler.


On May 18 I came across a very fluent Icterine in the little mining

town called Fosse No. 10, which was the last place in which one

would expect to see or hear anything so charming, as it was a squalid

excrescence of brick and mortar occasionally under shell-fire.


This one mimicked most accurately the call notes of the Green

and Greater-spotted Woodpeckers, but in miniature. I thought

up to this time that all these calls were imitating other birds' notes,

but this Fosse 10 bird also reproduced exactly the note of the so-called

Pekin Robin (Liothrix luleus ) — so that in some cases the similarity

of sound must be a mere coincidence.


This dreadful town of Fosse 10 appeared to only have this one

bird inhabitant, which lived amongst some lilac bushes in the little

back-yard of the deserted cottage where I was billeted.


On May 28 I found the first nest, a dainty, compact affair covered

with pieces of lichen and held in the fork of a shrub ; in it were five

eggs of a delicate purple-lilac colour, with small dark-brown spots.


Whenever I approached the nest the bird that 1 think was the hen

kept up a continual series of alarm cries, resembling the chirp of a

House Sparrow. Icterine Warblers seem to be attracted to towns,

as I saw and heard another in the large mining town of Bruay, where no

other Warblers were to be seen; in fact, no birds at all, except Sparrows

and Starlings, and occasionally a Black Redstart, which last has an

affection for roofs of houses.


Below the town of Poperinghe there is a stream with steep banks on

either side, and much hidden by shrubs and small trees, which runs

towards Abele. This was a great haunt of Icterine Warblers ; some

good mimics, some very poor. Here one noticed the great apparent

change in colour of the breast of these birds, varying from light brown

to bright green, the latter caused by the light being reflected off the

leaves of the bushes in which the birds were perching for the moment.



