THE DARTFORD WARBLER 223 



of a small British songster — a rare elusive bird, 

 hard to find at any time as it is to hear a nightin- 

 gale pour out its full song in the last week in June. 

 In these years I have, at every opportunity, in 

 spring, summer, and autumn, sought for the bird 

 in the southern half of England, chiefly in the 

 south and south-western counties. In the Mid- 

 lands, and in Devonshire, where he was formerly 

 well known, but where the authorities say he is 

 now extinct, I failed to find him. I found him 

 altogether in four counties, in a few widely-separated 

 localities ; in every case in such small numbers 

 that I was reluctantly forced to give up a long- 

 cherished hope that this species might yet recover 

 from the low state, with regard to numbers, in 

 which it lingers, and be permanently preserved 

 as a member of the British avifauna. 



It would indeed hardly be reasonable to enter- 

 tain such a hope, when we consider that the furze 

 wren, or Dartford warbler, as it is named in books, 

 is a small, frail, insectivorous species, a feeble flyer 

 that must brave the winters at home ; that down 

 to within thirty years ago it was fairly common, 

 though local, in the south of England, and ranged 

 as far north as the borders of Yorkshire, and that 

 in this period it has fallen to its present state, when 



