THE DARTFORD WARBLER 61 



Dartford Warbler remains in his favourite quarters and braves 

 all the rigours of a northern winter almost with impunity. 

 Curiously enough, this singular little bird is nowhere migra- 

 tory, and this would lead one to the conclusion that it is a 

 species which is striving to increase its northern range. 

 Unfortunately for the poor bird it makes little progress in 

 this direction, for an unusually severe winter or prolonged 

 spell of frost well-nigh exterminates it, and years elapse 

 before it occurs again in its wonted numbers. British orni- 

 thologists may justly feel proud of this little bird, for it was 

 first made known to science by an English naturalist, from a 

 specimen shot near Dartford in Kent from which town it 

 received its trivial name. 



The Dartford "Warbler is a bird of the commons and 

 the heaths, where extensive coverts of gorse and masses of 

 briar and bramble are to be found. It is another little 

 skulking species, but not quite so much so as the Grasshopper 

 Warbler. It rarely takes wing, and still more rarely indulges 

 in a long flight. The furze bushes are its favourite retreat ; 

 but in very severe weather I have flushed it from the low 

 scrub on the beach, and occasionally from under the broad 

 leaves of the turnips. The little " furze Wren " is perhaps 

 most interesting in the spring, when the gorse coverts glow 

 like burnished gold in the bright May sunshine. Then he 

 may be seen skipping about the prickly branches of the gorse, 

 running up to the very summit of the bushes to warble his 

 sweet little song, then down again into the dense mass of 

 vegetation, to reappear in quite another part of the cover. 

 Where the birds are at all common, several may often be seen 

 fluttering above the gorse at the same moment, and their 

 peculiar and unmistakable note sounds loudly on every 

 side. 



As the Dartford Warbler lives almost exclusively on 

 insects, it is a very active restless little creature, and is 



