4 FIELD-STUDIES OF RARER BIRDS 



vicinity of the coast. Moreover, from having on 

 several occasions seen ' ' Dartfords ' ' amongst the 

 hordes of arriving and departing small birds near 

 the coast in spring and autumn, I am tempted to 

 believe that this species is to some slight extent 

 truly migratory. All the same, many " Dart- 

 fords ' are true to their nest-haunts throughout 

 the entire year, a fact easily verified when hounds 

 are drawing gorse-coverts. Everything points to 

 this species being life-paired : witness a couple 

 frequenting the same spot annually ; and although 

 the Dartford Warbler is in no way gregarious, it 

 may, in a sense, be termed social, seeing that, in a 

 favourable district, quite a number of pairs may be 

 found nesting in fairly close proximity. 



The nesting-haunts of this Warbler are always 

 (this is a safe ' ' always ' ') of the same character : 

 they embrace the gorse (albeit not the too luxuriant 

 and lofty gorse) and heath of common-land and 

 down-brake. In the majority of cases there is 

 present ling or heath, which, forcing its way up 

 into the inmost recesses of the furze, affords a site 

 for the nest such as the little fellows love. In 

 some areas the birds frequent large tracts of heath - 

 covered waste, dotted here and there with clumps 

 and irregular battalions of seedling conifers, and 

 bounded and interspersed with real woodlands of 

 pine, hardly any gorse growing there at all. In 

 such cases they nest in the rankest heather available, 

 sometimes a long way from a bush or tree of any 



