344 MELIZOPHILUS UNDATUS. 



[§ 1750. Four.— East Suffolk, 2G April, 1890. " E. N." i 



Concerning these I extract the following from my brother's notes written 

 the next day : — " I drove to the heath, but unfortunately a heavy thunderstorm 

 came on, so that it was late before we got to the Dartford Warbler's spot. The 

 rain still continued for another half-hour, but we set to work at once, formed 

 a line, and walked the gorse. In less than ten minutes a pair of birds got up 

 between the man and myself, and on my pointing them out to him he at once 

 said he had never seen that bird before. We watched them for some few 

 minutes, but could make nothing of them. I suppose, as it was cloudy, they 

 would not come to the top of the gorse, but remained out of sight. We walked 

 some little way on, and then turned back further on the heath again, and after 

 we had passed the place where we had seen the pair the boy saw a bird on the 

 top of a gorse-bush — the sun then shining brightly. This bird was just on the 

 side of a low hill, and it fi(;w up the slope to the level, close to a cart-track, 

 and disappeared. We went below and soon saw another bird come from an 

 opposite direction and fly to the top of a gorse-bush, when it was joined by the 

 one just before seen. We could make out pretty clearly that the second was a 

 cock, as it erected its crest and jerked its tail high up over its back. The other 

 bird soon dropped again into some thick gorse about ten yards off, and there my 

 man said he felt sure was the nest. We, however, had a, search where the boy 

 had first seen the bird, but with no success ; and as I expected Mv. A. H. Evans 

 to join me, I walked to meet him. On looking round after I got to the end of 

 the heath, I saw the nian go up tlie slope to where we had lost sight of the 

 supposed hen bird, and coming down again he held up his hand, by which I 

 felt sure he had found the nest. After waiting some time for Mr. Evans, who 

 had been delayed, I went back to the man, who told me he had found the nest 



^ The discovery of this bird in Siiffblk or Norfolk had been very earnestly sought 

 by my brother Edward and myself in our younger days, and many a long ride 

 or drive did we take hoping to come across it on some of the furzy heaths then 

 existing within ten or fifteen miles of Elveden. Not a trace of it did we ever find, 

 and I feel sure that, though there were plenty of places apparently suited to its 

 liabits, it did not occur in that district, while in no part of either ciiuuty had it 

 been recorded save as a straggler. In the early spring of 1884 my brother, who had 

 just gone to live at Lowestoft, one day observed a Dartford Warbler in a patch of 

 furze on a small remnant of heathland close to that town, and from the bird's 

 behaviour judged that it was not a mere stranger ; but, within a few days after, 

 that patch of furze was stubbed, and of course he never saw the bird again. More 

 than five years later (12 September, 1889) he met with a pair on another heath in 

 East Sufiblk, when his suspicion as to the species being a true native of the county 

 was confirmed. The following spring he and I went together (16 April, 1890) to 

 this heath, and after waiting about a quarter of an hour he saw a bird near the 

 place where he had before observed the pair, and it was soon after joined by another. 

 Our time was very short, and we had no chance of finding out whether they had a 

 nest; but ten days later he repeated his visit accompanied by a man well skilled in 

 watching birds, and a boy, with the result, described in the text, of discovering the 

 first nest of the species ever found, so far as we know, in East Anglia. 



