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C U 11 R U C A. 



place of garden fruit during the spring. They all 

 frequently erect the feathers upon the crown of the 

 head and throat, and whilst doing so, not unusually 

 emit a sort of check, or tchut, which varies a little in 

 the different species, and much resembles the sound 

 produced by tapping two pebbles together. This 

 note must be familiar to most persons residing in the 

 country. It sometimes indicates suspicion, or fear, 

 as it is uttered whenever they espy an enemy, but is 

 also expressive of various other emotions. They are 

 mostly shy and hidling in their habits, concealing 

 themselves amidst the thickest foliage. Their colours 

 are chaste and unobtrusive, and they would in general 

 be very little noticed, were it not for the almost 

 incessant warbling of the males. They chiefly nidi- 

 ficate in low bushes ; the blackcap and the garden 

 warbler, however, often build in a forked branch, 

 at four or five feet from the ground, and the lesser 

 whitethroat sometimes at the height of nine or ten 

 feet, but all of them most commonly near the ground. 

 The nest is of rather flimsy construction, but firmly 

 put together, composed chiefly of the dry withered 

 stems of catch-weed or goose-grass (Galium aparinc), 

 woven into a kind of basket-work ; in some species 

 always with a little green moss on the outside, and 

 lined with fine dry grass and horse-hair, with the 

 addition, in some species, of small fibrous roots. 



There is not a more remarkable fact, nor one 

 more indicative of the entire and absolute distinct- 

 ness of our different small birds, than that every 

 separate species invariably constructs its nest in a 

 manner so peculiarly its own, that a practised eye 

 would never mistake it for the nest of any other 

 species ; the materials, perhaps, may vary a little 

 according to the locality, though even this is seldom 

 the case, and never in any very remarkable degree 

 yet the mode of construction is always so precisely 

 similar in different individuals of the same species 

 that there is never much difficulty in identifying the 

 nest of any one of them. Still, however, notwith- 

 standing this distinctness, there is always a great 

 generic similitude in the nests of different birds of the 

 same natural genus, similar to that which obtains in 

 the birds themselves ; and the more the birds approxi- 

 mate, the more closely (as the term is) they are 

 allied, so in the same ratio the more do their nests 

 resemble ; each, however, still preserving some pecu- 

 liar distinctive characters by which it may be always 

 known. Indeed, if we trace also the various inter 

 mediate links, which almost imperceptibly connec 

 the most dissimilar forms together, we may almos 

 always observe a regular gradation in the nests, simi 

 lar and corresponding to that which prevails in th< 

 birds. The same gradation is likewise very often 

 observable, even in the very notes and songs of birds 

 in the nature and disposition of their colours an 

 markings, and in the colours and markings of thei 

 eggs. A practised, ear will at once distinguish ever 

 separate species by its peculiar notes ; as in the genu 

 Currucn, the subject of the present article, those of al 

 the different species of a natural genus may have a 

 very strong generic similitude, yet each is alway 

 readily distinguishable from all the others. As we 

 meet with no mule productions in a state of nature 

 no intermediate specimens, so we find no interme 

 diate nests, nor hear intermediate notes ; each pre 

 serves in every respect its specific characters. I 

 will be conceded that the most remarkable generi 

 resemblances are those of the nests ; yet so truly doe 



bis obtain, that, in many instances, both generic and 

 pecific divisions may almost as safely be deduced 

 rom an examination of these as from the study of the 

 )irds themselves. In the present instance we have not 

 entured to give a generic description of the nests of 

 all the species of Curruca, although that of each 

 eparate species presents invariably certain marked 

 )eculiarities, by which it may always be at once dis- 

 inguished from those of any of its congeners, how- 

 ver, on a superficial view, these may resemble it. A 

 common species of Curruca in the south of England is 

 THE GARDEN WARBLER (C. hortensis), one of the 

 most delightful songsters of this or any country, but 

 which, notwithanding, is most wonderfully little known 

 to people in general. In size and form it very closely 

 resembles the black-cap, indeed so much so, that an 

 albino or white specimen of either could not very 

 readily be distinguished. It is, however, somewhat 

 shorter than that bird, and rather more thickly made ; 

 all over of an almost uniform olive-brown colour, 

 rather paler about the throat, and inclining to white 

 upon the belly, and usually having a dash of grey 

 upon the sides of the neck. This is one of the latest 

 of our summer migrants to arrive in spring, and also 

 one of the first to depart, in this respect differing 

 widely from the black-cap, which is always one of 

 the first of the summer birds to make its appearance, 

 and one of the very last to leave us ; a difference, by 

 the way, which is singularly enough observable in 

 several migrant birds, that are nearly allied to each 

 other. The garden warbler is never abundant in this 

 country till the trees are in full leaf, but its presence 

 is always soon announced hy the delightful flow of 

 soft and pleasing melody which it pours forth, often 

 from the top of some tall pear-tree, or, if not in a 

 garden, generally from amid the branches of an elm. 

 Sometimes he commences with some low twittering 

 notes, not much unlike the song of the swallow, and 

 raising his voice by degrees,through a series of charm- 

 ing and most delightful flute-like modulations, he ends 

 with the full rich whistle of the blackbird, but delivered 

 in a more hurried cadence. He usually continues 

 singing about three or four minutes, when he stops as 

 if to take breath, and almost immediately commences 

 again ; deep, rich, and mellow, his lovely warble is 

 heard nearly throughout the day, and occasionally 

 even after sunset, singing nearly throughout the sum- 

 mer, and as the season advances often both beginning 

 and ending with the same loud blackbird notes. As 

 in all other birds, some individuals are much finer 

 songsters than others. 



The garden warbler does not appear to be quite so 

 generally dispersed over the country as the blackcap, 

 though it may be more so than is commonly sup- 

 posed, as it is often confounded with that bird. It is 

 certainly very abundant in many parts of the south 

 of England, and particularly near the metropolis ; 

 and Mr. Selby states that it is found " throughout 

 the greater part of Scotland, particularly where the 

 wooded districts margin the lakes and rivers." Mon- 

 tagu traced it through the greater part of England. 

 Both this species and the blackcap frequently com- 

 mence singing a few seconds before they settle, as 

 they fly from tree to tree, continuing their song unin- 

 terruptedly after they have alighted. Indeed, these 

 two species resemble each other most closely in their 

 general habits, and the history of the latter, as given in 

 the article BLACKCAP, applies in almost every respect 

 to that of the garden warbler. They are both great 



