50 BIRDS OF MIDDLESEX. 



Occasionally instances have occurred of Black- 

 caps being shot, and others heard, during winter, 

 in the neighbourhood of London. 



Mr. Shirley Hibberd says :* "At Dulwich, Horn- 

 sey, Kensington, and St. John's Wood, the Blackcap 

 may be heard every season, soon after the last days 

 of March, but it makes its wa}' only into such of the 

 more urban districts as enclose within their boun- 

 daries much rural scenery." 



In a subsequent note the same waiter remarks 

 that " many true British residents are true migrants 

 as to London, and all the true migrants come into 

 song later near London than elsewhere throughout 

 the land." 



Garden Warbler, Sylvia hortensis. A summer 

 visitant, but less common than the last. In some 

 seasons, however, I have found both this and the 

 last species xerj plentiful in the Hampstead woods. 

 The Garden Warbler is a very beautiful songster, 

 and will sometimes sit in the midst of a thick bush 

 in the evening, like a Nightingale, and maintain a 

 continued warble for twenty minutes without a 

 pause. Its song is somewhat irregular, both in tune 

 and time, but it is wonderfull}^ deep and mellow for 

 so small a bird. It sometimes commences its song 

 like a Blackbird, but always ends with its own. In 

 general habits it somewhat resembles the AYillow 



* i 



Intellectual Observer,' Xo. XXXIX., p. 174. 



