332 SYLVIADJJ. 



but sometimes singing from a branch at the top of a tree. 

 As a songster, the Garden Warbler ranks next to the 

 Blackcap ; and a good judge of the comparative value of 

 the songs of our birds has described that of the Garden 

 Warbler as a continued strain of considerable modulation, 

 sometimes lasting for half an hour at a time without a 

 pause. The song is wild, rapid, and irregular in time and 

 tone ; but the rich depth is wonderful for so small a 

 throat, approaching in deep mellowness even to that of 

 the Blackbird. 



The Garden Warbler seldom comes to this country in 

 the spring till towards the end of April or the beginning 

 of May. Mr. Selby remarks that it is rarely seen till the 

 elm and the oak are bursting into leaf : the males arrive 

 before the females. They frequent thick hedges, shrub- 

 beries, and gardens, feeding on insects, peas, various fruits, 

 according to the notes of the Hon. and Rev. W. Her- 

 bert,* cherries in particular, and some berries. Their 

 nest is placed in a low bush, or among rank herbage. I 

 have found it hid in a row of peas and pea-sticks in a 

 garden, and once among some tares in an open field. Mr. 

 Jesse mentions an instance under his own observation of 

 a Garden Warbler building its nest three times in suc- 

 cession among some ivy growing against a wall ; the ma- 

 terials, consisting of goose-grass, bents, with a little wool 

 and moss, lined with fine fibrous roots and a few hairs, 

 are but loosely put together : the eggs are four or five 

 in number, of a greenish white, spotted and streaked with 

 ash-green and light brown ; the length nine lines, by six 

 lines and a half in breadth. The young are said to re- 

 main in the nest till they are well grown and feathered. 



This species was first made known to Dr. Latham, as a 

 British Bird, by Sir Ashton Lever, who observed and ob- 

 * In two editions of White's Natural History of Selborne. 



