DARTFORD WARBLER. 147 



branches of the brake, they conceal themselves in 

 the thickest part on the least alarm, and creep 

 about from bush to bush."* These are all habits 

 resembling those of the common and lesser White- 

 throats. On the Continent, again, they are said 

 to frequent the cabbage gardens, where they will, 

 no doubt, find abundance of food ; but it will be 

 so different, and the locality altogether is so 

 much at variance with that frequented in Britain, 

 that we can scarcely account for it. 



The nest is placed a little way from the ground 

 among the whins, and is described by Montague 

 as " composed of dry vegetable stalks, parti- 

 cularly goose grass, mixed with tender dead 

 branches of furze. These are put together in a 

 very loose manner, intermixed very sparingly 

 with wool. The lining is equally sparing, for it 

 consists only of a few dry stalks of some fine 

 species of carex."f Mr Yarrell has also given us 

 a pretty woodcut of one procured last year, which 

 generally agrees with the description above given ; 

 it is of the loose and careless structure we have 

 alluded to, as characterizing the architecture of 

 the genus curruca. The eggs are grayish green, 

 speckled over with olive brown. 



Upper parts of the body clove brown, on the 

 wings and tail assuming a very deep shade ; 

 cheeks and auriculars gray ; the throat, back, 

 breast, and flanks, brownish purple red, becoming 

 paler on the vent, and shading to grayish clove 



* Gould's Birds of Europe. 



t Montague's Ornithological Dictionary. 



