DARTFORD WARBLERS 15 



you have just vacated. Half an hour, perhaps, 

 now elapses before patience is rewarded, and this 

 time the bird again carries an atom of white down. 

 The old spot gained, she slips into one side of a 

 bush, to reappear three seconds later on its far 

 flank : and she is without the down ! ' ' Got it this 

 time ! ' ' you mentally ejaculate. Not a bit of it. 

 Metaphorically you turn that bush inside out, 

 carefully you examine every shred of it, but all to 

 no purpose. Back again to your post ; more 

 watching. At last ten minutes later she is busy 

 again with a substantial bill-ful of dried grass. 

 Four rather isolated bushes stand in an irregular row. 

 From the furthest of these she glides into the next, 

 through that, and so on in rotation still she holds 

 the grass till the fourth and last is reached. In 

 this she remains a couple of minutes before 

 absconding empty-mouthed. Your previous failure 

 does not inspire confidence ; but a deliberately 

 cautious search decides that the nest is there, 

 skilfully concealed in the very heart of the prickles 

 and about a foot from the ground. 



Most nests are in gorse bushes of medium 

 height and size. Never, it seems, are they 

 found in very lofty furze, although the bush 

 selected may be growing in the middle of a tall 

 ''brake." Very often a little path or rough 

 natural track leads past the bush ; some nests 

 are placed in bushes aligning even a much- 

 frequented road. 



