DARTFORD WARBLER. 415 
published a description of this bird, illustrated by a figure by Daubenton, 
under the name of Le Pitchou, from an example which had been sent to 
him from Marseilles. When Latham wrote his ‘Index Ornithologicus,’ 
he had already discovered the identity of the Marseilles bird with his 
Dartford Warbler. 
The geographical distribution of this little Warbler is a somewhat 
remarkable one. It is not known to be anywhere a migratory bird*. 
Its headquarters appear to be the basin of the Mediterranean, where it 
occurs in Spain, the extreme south of France, Corsica, Sardinia, Italy, 
and Sicily. It has been recorded from Greece and Asia Minor; but no 
recent ornithologists have met with it in those countries. Canon Tristram 
obtained it in Palestine; and Heuglin found it near Alexandria. It is 
a resident im Morocco and Algeria. On the shores of the Atlantic the 
mild winters produced by the Gulf-stream have enabled it to push 
much further north, and it is found in Portugal and the extreme west of 
France. In England it is principally confined to the counties bordering 
the Channel, but also occurs in the counties of Surrey, Oxford, Wor- 
cester, Leicester, and Derby, and has been found as far north as South 
Yorkshire, where Dixon obtained its nest in the neighbourhood of Sheffield. 
Its numbers would probably increase, and its range continue to extend 
further north, were it not that in some years a sudden and heavy fall 
of snow, or an unusually long-continued frost, almost exterminates it in 
some localities. 
In summer the Dartford Warbler lives almost entirely in the furze 
bushes ; hence its local name of Furze-Wren. In winter, though it may 
often be seen in its summer haunts, the necessity of procuring food 
prompts it to visit the turnip-fields, or to range along the coast. Its long 
tail and short rounded wings do not seem adapted to extensive flights ; 
but it has nevertheless been twice seen on Heligoland. It is seldom seen 
on the wing. At Biarritz I found them frequenting the reeds on the 
banks of a small lake. The first sight I had of one was that of a little 
dark bird with a fan-like tail suddenly appearing amongst the reeds, crossing 
a small patch where they had been cut down, and as suddenly and silently 
disappearing amongst the reeds on the opposite side. Occasionally, as 
we walked on the bank of the lake, we heard a loud, clear, melodious 
pitch'-oo repeated once or twice amongst the reeds. The note was so 
musical that for a moment one might imagine that a Nightingale was 
beginning to strike up a tune. Now and then we saw the bird appear for 
* The statement in Dresser’s ‘ Birds of Europe,’ that ‘“ Heuglin says that it is very rare 
in Lower Egypt, where it appears with the Subalpine Warbler and Riippell’s Warbler 
\between the 20th and 25th March,” is incorrect. Heuglin says that he saw it between 
those dates, in the company of the birds named; but there is not a word said to suggest 
that it is migratory, or that the dates given are the times of its arrival, 
