MELIZOPHILUS UNDATL'S. 345 



and seen the old bird fly oft' it. We walked up the cart-road, and just witliiu 

 twenty yards of the top of the slope, to the left of the track, the gorse had been 

 cut away quite lately for the space of about three yards, so that what was left 

 stood up with its stems almost exposed. Within a foot of the extreme top of 

 a bush was the nest, built j iist as a Linnet's would be. The bird flew oft" when 

 I touched the bush, and was not more than a yard from me. She dived down 

 into the gorse and we came away. I sent the boy back to the end of the heath 

 to meet Mr. Evans, while the man and I walked about to find others. In about 

 ten miuutes Mr. Evans appeared, and we at once went back to the nest. The 

 bii'd again flew off, and after waiting about a minute it crept up to the top of a 

 tall gorse-bush and uttered the harsh cry ' hack hack,' something like a Greater 

 Whitethroat's cry. It erected its crest, jerked up its tail over its back, and 

 seemed very angry. Mr. Evans then took the eggs out of the nest and packed 

 them, and then the nest itself, which was composed of coarse bents, and lined 

 with finer ones and a little hair. The sun still continued to shine, and we 

 walked along the edge of the slope, and almost directly Mr. Evans and the 

 man saw another bird with some stuff in its mouth. It flew to the top of the 

 slope, and we saw it once more without anything in its mouth, so we supposed 

 it had been to its nest, but that we could not find, and we went further on 

 to look for more. In a few minutes the man said he heard a bird singing, 

 the note of which he did not know. I confess I did not hear it, but we soon 

 saw a Dartford Warbler sitting on the top of a bush, and it presently flew up 

 about twenty feet into the air singing a very low song. It afterwards flew to 

 some distance on the heath, and we lost sight of it. It was then late, and I 

 had to come away, leaving Mr. Evans there. We came to the conclusion that 

 we must have seen four pairs of birds. I blew the eggs this morning ; they 

 were only just incubated." 



Mr. Evans failed to find another nest tliat day or the next, and told me he 

 thought that they had been mistaken as to the number of birds seen, and that 

 there was only one pair, which they kept seeing over and over again. About 

 a month later he again visited the heath, and found another nest with six eggs, 

 belonging, he thought, to the same pair of birds.] 



[§ 1751. Four.—^ast Suffolk, 4 May, 1893. " E. N." 



Later in the year 1890 (10 May), on another heath in East Suffolk, my 

 brother found a pair of Dartford Warblers which evidently had young, and by 

 diligently watching the parents — one of them on the third trial flying out 

 within a foot of his face — he saw a young bird fully fledged, but with a very 

 short tail, flutter away through the furze. No doubt the rest of the brood were 

 there, but he was unable to see them. The old birds were very actively 

 feeding, constantly searching on the ground, sometimes on a bare sandy place 

 made by a cart-track. It was easy to distinguish the cock from the hen, as 

 the former nearly always had his crest erected and his neck stretched out; 

 but he never sang a note. In April 1891 my brother twice went to this 

 locality, once in company with Mr. Southwell, and each time saw Dartford 

 Warblers, while he also found a pair on a third heath not far off. Both of 

 these places I subsequently visited with him. He did not find a nest in that 



