CHAPTER XII 



THE DARTFORD WARBLER 



HOW TO SAVE OUR RAKE BIRDS 



THE most interesting chapter in John Burroughs' 

 Fresh Fields contains an account of an anxious 

 hurried search after a nightingale in song, at a 

 time of the year when that " creature of ebullient 

 heart " somewhat suddenly drops into silence. A 

 few days were spent by the author in rushing about 

 the country in Surrey and Hampshire, with the 

 result that once or twice a few musical throbs of 

 sound, a trill, a short detached phrase, were heard 

 just enough to convince the eager listener that 

 here was a vocalist beautiful beyond all others, 

 and that he had missed its music by appearing a 

 very few days too late on the scene. 



During the last seven or eight years I have read 

 this chapter several times with undiminished in- 

 terest, and with a feeling of keen sympathy for 

 the writer in his disappointment ; for it is the 

 case that I, too, all this time, have been in chase 



