312 THE DARTFORD WARBLER. 



The Dartford Warbler, or Furze Wren. 



(Sylvia Dartfordiensis.) Lath. 

 ( Melizophilus Provincialis.) Leach. 



" Methinks it is not strange, then, that I fled 

 The house of prayer, and made the lonely grove 

 My temple, and marked the insect hum, 

 The flow of waters, and the song of birds 

 Making a holy music to mine ear." — Southey. 



This plain-dressed little bird received its name from being 

 first identified as a separate species by Dr Latham, in 1773, who 

 got a pair from Bexley Heath, near Dartford, in Kent, to which 

 name science added iensis and provincialis to latinize and con- 

 found it ; and Dr Leach formed it into a genus by itself, under 

 the queer name of Melizophilus— hence called Melizophilus 

 Provincialis. But, like love and war, all is fair in the science 

 of Natural History. This plain little bird is no bigger than the 

 jenny-wren, but its long tail makes it look larger. No doubt it 

 flitted about furzy heaths in the south of Britain centuries before 

 Dr Latham saw it, and, for aught I know, it may be flitting 

 about them in Fifeshire now, although unnoticed. It is 

 indigenous and plentiful in the south of England, and may be 

 so in Scotland, now that the habits and cultivation of the old 

 island are so much assimilated. On passing through Banffshire 

 and other counties in the north, in August, I saw T the grain 

 crops ripe and ready for cutting ; while in Fifeshire they were 

 not even tinged with ripening yellow — so much for our northern 

 climate. So I advise my young readers to be on the alert for 

 the Dartford warbler and other rare little birds which are so 

 much alike in colour. In habits, nidification, and hurried song 

 it is like the whitethroat — singing while fluttering over the 

 furze as they do over a hedge. It has the flitting habits of the 

 chat, with the hiding, hurried singing of the whitethroat. It 

 is only 5 inches long by 6 in extent of wings. The general 

 colour is blackish-grey ; wing coverts, quills, and tail blackish- 

 brown ; throat, fore-neck, breast, and sides reddish-brown ; belly, 

 white ; tarsi and toes, red dish -brown. Rusticus of Godalming 

 says — " Its habits are like those of the jenny-wren — when the 



