20 FIELD-STUDIES OF RARER BIRDS 



intruder is as much as seventy yards from the nest. 

 The young themselves, when quit of their birth- 

 place, lose no time in separating and diving into 

 the gorse or heather on the approach of a 

 trespasser. 



The first clutch of eggs is generally laid between 

 April 15th and May 5th, the best average date 

 for a full, fresh "set" being, perhaps, between 

 April 25th-30th, whilst second broods are reared 

 during June and July. Before reading Mr. 

 Ellman's note in Borrer's Birds of Sussex to the 

 effect that he had " on April 29h, 1852, seen 

 thirty or forty young ' Dartfords ' out of the nest ' 

 (the italics are mine), I had no notion that the 

 species was ever such a wonderfully early breeder. 

 Surely that season must have been an exceptionally 

 early one? for, normally, the earliest broods are 

 seldom fit to leave the nest prior to mid -May. 

 Mr. Swaysland, too, tells me of a nest he found 

 with young near Falmer, Sussex, on April 26th, 

 1872. 



