FURZE-WREN. 27 



We have a bird common here, which, I fancy, is almost 

 unknown in other districts, for I have scarcely ever seen it 

 in collections ; and, from the few remarks about it and 

 sketches of it in natural histories, no correct idea can be 

 formed. I mean the FURZE -WREN, or, as authors are 

 pleased to call it, the Dartford warbler. We learn that the 

 epithet Dartford is derived from the little Kentish town of 

 that name, and that it was given to the furze-wren because 

 he was first noticed in that neighbourhood : the term 'war- 

 bler ' is inappropriate, as the furze-wren is a poor warbler. 

 If you have ever watched a common wren (a kitty wren we 

 call her), you must have observed that she cocked her tail 

 bolt upright, strained her little beak at right angles, and her 

 throat in the same fashion, to make the most of her fizgig 

 of a song, and kept on jumping and jerking and frisking 

 about, for all the world as though she was worked by steam : 

 well, that's more the character of the Dartford warbler, or, 

 as we call it, the furze-wren. When the leaves are off 

 the trees, and the chill winter winds have driven the sum- 

 mer birds to the olive gardens of Spain, or across the Straits, 

 the furze-wren is in the height of his enjoyment. I have 

 seen them by dozens skipping about the furze, lighting for 

 a moment upon the very point of the sprigs, and instantly 

 diving out of sight again, singing out their angry impatient 

 ditty, for ever the same. Perched on the back of a good 

 tall nag, and riding quietly along the outside, while the fox- 

 hounds have been drawing the furze-fields, I have often 

 seen these birds come to the tops of the furze. They 

 are, however, very hard to shoot ; darting down directly 

 they see the flash, or hear the cap crack, I don't know 

 which. I have seen excellent shots miss them, while rab- 

 bit-shooting with beagles. They prefer those places where 



