DARTFORD WARBLERS 11 



fresh morning, the males burst into constant, if 

 scrappy, music. The song itself is unique a 

 sweet, gentle ditty (albeit clear and distinct), quite 

 in keeping with the soft, velvety bloom of the 

 gorse blossoms. Its great charm and charac- 

 teristic is a series of liquid, mellow, bubbling notes 

 recurring at intervals ; and in it you shall detect, 

 as it were, imitatory snatches of Whitethroat's, 

 Hedge-Sparrow's, and Stonechat's refrain: yet it is 

 ever sweeter, lower, shorter, and, in fine, altogether 

 better than any of the trio's. It is usually heard as 

 the bird deftly balances on a furze-spray; sometimes 

 from the recesses of a bush, as the musician creeps 

 mouse-like through the undergrowth; sometimes 

 from a tree even from high in a tree from 

 telegraph-wires or a post, should any or all of these 

 objects occur in its haunts; sometimes again as the 

 bird, emulating the aerial feat of the Whitethroat, 

 mounts hoveringly into the air. 



In anger the tirr note is run into the song with 

 fair frequency, and under pressure of annoyance or 

 alarm the tirr itself will for the male end up 

 with trui ; for the female with a rattling sort 

 of stammer like this : tut-t-t-t-t or tr-tr-tr-tr. 

 Another cry, and obviously one of alarm or menace, 

 in view of its frequency when the young are 

 threatened, resembles the syllables tc-tc-tc, but it is 

 not quite like that full tec or tic which is a common 

 attribute of many of the Warblers, nor does it 

 approach it in harshness. I once heard this cry 



