el 
‘* Thou fairy bird, how I love to trace 
The rapid flight of thy tiny race ; 
For the wild bee does not wave its wing 
More lightly than thine, thou fairy thing.” 
Who has not had his attention arrested on some fine spring 
morning, by the gleesome trill of this warbler (whose song, speaking 
as a musician, I should call a slurred descending chromatic scale, 
ending with a final flourish diminuendo), and has not stopped to 
listen to it? It is an inhabitant of more northern countries, and 
Mr. Hewitson, in his “British Oology,” mentions the delight he 
experienced on hearing its soft sweet note whilst seated within the 
Arctic circle, upon one of the bleak isles of Norway. This warbler 
makes its appearance in this district about the 13th of April, and 
leaves us about the 25th of September. The male bird when 
commencing his song, ruffles up the feathers of his throat, which 
gives him rather a peculiar appearance ; and I have often noticed, 
that he sings sweetest and loudest during the time the female is 
sitting ; it also sings whilst on the wing. 
Just above the Hyssop Holm well, there was a nest last year 
near the bank top, and close to the public footpath ; and I am also 
happy to state, that it brought up its young in safety, in spite of its 
being in such a public situation. I have watched it feeding its 
young many a time, standing a few yards off ; and one morning I 
timed its visits to the nest, and I found it fed them on an average 
once every two minutes. It was curious to watch the cunning 
manner in which the old bird approached the nest to feed them, 
especially when any person was coming nigh: it would drop from 
the tree that overhung the nest, and alight on a little bush a dozen 
yards off, or so, and then run along the grass to the nest, feed its 
young, run back again, and always in a different direction, the 
whole proceeding not lasting many seconds. Its actions are very 
lively, and I have seen it catch insects on the wing with the same 
address as that of the flycatcher. Its food appears to be purely 
insectivorous, as I have watched it through the field-glass, and I 
never observed it seize anything but insects, caterpillars, etc. I 
should consider it one of the gardener’s best friends, as far as my 
