DARTFORD WARBLERS 19 



adventure for a fleeting instant watch the bird 

 brooding, she slips off with intense stealth, creeping 

 through the next and succeeding bushes, and 

 seldom showing until she is some yards from her 

 belongings, and then only momentarily. She may 

 then call once or twice by way of warning. So 

 craftily, however, does she go through this per- 

 formance that, unless you are previously aware of 

 the nest, you would never suspect her existence 

 until she shows up or calls out, so very slight is 

 the movement of the branches she threads through, 

 so faint their rustling ; and unless the nest 

 harbours young, greater symptoms of agitation 

 are seldom shown. Then (brooding on newly- 

 hatched nestlings for instance) I have seen a ' ' Dart- 

 ford ' ' leave her nest not only very reluctantly, 

 but also with a don't-you-see-I'm-hurt sort of 

 action feeble, fluttering flight low over the heath 

 and fully-expanded tail. 



Nestlings, when first hatched, are of a dirty- 

 pink colour, in parts verging into grey, with 

 feather-tracts of a sooty tint : their bill is pale 

 yellow with a dark-brown tip. They are fledged in 

 about thirteen days, but for some time after that 

 are waited on by their parents, for both sexes 

 assist in feeding them, sometimes together, some- 

 times alternately, though, whether helping or no, 

 the male is usually in close attendance. The old 

 birds are very elusive when visiting the young, 

 though they start calling .distractedly when an 



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