68 OUR RESIDENT BIRDS 



white. Bill dark horn-colour. Cere and legs yellow. 

 Length 19 in. Female : upper parts reddish brown ; 

 under parts pale ruddy yellow, streaked and spotted with 

 yellowish brown. Tail brown, with five darker bars 

 (hence Ringtail). Length 21 in. Young, resemble 

 female, only more rufous. Nestling covered with white 

 down. 



Language. A scream rather like the Kestrel. 



Habits. Flight buoyant, and rather like a Gull's. It 

 methodically quarters the ground, flying low for the 

 purpose, when hunting for its prey. 



Food. Small mammals and birds, frogs and snakes. 



Nest. May. One brood. 



Site. On the ground, usually among heather. 



Materials. Sticks, dry grass, bits of heather, lined 

 with dry grass. 



Eggs. Four to six. White, faintly suffused with blue ; 

 occasionally marked with rusty brown. 



DARTFORD WARBLER OR FURZE WREN 



(Sylvia undata). 



Very local and uncommon. Breeds in most of the 

 southern counties, more especially in Hants, Surrey, 

 Sussex and Kent ; much rarer further north. 



Haunts. Furze-grown commons. 



Plumage. Upper parts dark greyish brown, more 

 slaty on the head ; under parts chestnut-brown, paling 

 into dull white on the belly. Tail dark grey, long and 

 fan-shaped, two outer feathers broadly tipped with 

 brownish white. Bill horn-brown, paling into yellowish 

 at the base. Legs pale brown. Length 5 in. In ap- 

 pearance much like a dark-coloured long-tailed Wren. 

 Female smaller and paler ; after autumn moult, 

 throat, breast, and flanks spotted and streaked with 

 white. Young, paler than female and whiter under 

 parts. 



