The Dartford Warbler. 8i 



Family— TURDID.^. Sub/ami/y—SYL VIINy^. 



The Dartford Warbler. 



Sylvia tindata, BODD. 



ALTHOUGH this Warbler has been known to breed in Kent, I have never 

 been able to be certain of having seen it, though I have sometimes 

 suspected that nests which I have discovered built in furze-bushes, might 

 have been the work of this species : whoever the architect was, she slipped away 

 so quietly into the dense, prickly cover on my approach, that I could not even 

 get a glimpse of her, and only knew of her whereabouts by the movement in 

 the furze. 



Howard Saunders gives the following as the geographical distribution of this 

 species: — "Although as a rule a non-migratory species, the Dartford Warbler has 

 been observed in Heligoland ; but it is unknown in Northern Germany, Holland, 

 or Belgium. Rather rare in the Channel Islands, it is found throughout France 

 in suitable localities, especially from the foot of the Western P3'renees to Provence. 

 In many parts of Portugal and Spain it is common, and I have watched it 

 singing among the orange-gardens of Murcia ; while it nests in the sierras of the 

 almost tropical south coast at elevations of from 4,000 to 3,000 feet. In Morocco 

 and Algeria it is also resident, and it has been recorded from Lower Egypt, and 

 Palestine ; but in Europe its eastern range is not known to extend beyond Italy 

 and Sicily, the bird seldom reaching Malta." 



With regard to its distribution in Great Britain, this author says : — " It is 

 now known to breed in nearly all the southern counties, from Cornwall to Kent, 

 especially in Hampshire (including the Isle of Wight), Surrey and Sussex ; 

 sparingly in the valley of the Thames; perhaps in some of the Midland Counties; 

 and, on the sole authority of Mr. C. Dixon, in the Rivelin valley, in the extreme 

 south of Yorkshire. It has been observed in Cambridgeshire and Norfolk ; while 

 in Suffolk a few probably breed." 



Respecting its occurrence in Heligoland, Gatke says that onl}' two instances 

 are recorded, " it having on one occasion been obtained by Reyners, and on the 

 other observed by myself, on May 31st, 1851, hopping aboitt in the thorn-hedge 

 of a neighbouring garden at only a few paces distant. Unfortunately there being 



