OF HARTING. 2/3 



unfrequently greets the rising sun. On such occasions 

 he sometimes gets a glimpse of a little bird darting 

 rapidly upwards out of a tuft of heath or furze, and as 

 quickly dropping again after a short flight This is 

 the cock bird at his morning orisons, or what " Rusticus 

 of Godalming " terms his " fiz-gig of a song." After 

 the lapse of a minute or two, he makes a second fitful 

 and brief aerial excursion from another tuft several 

 yards distant from the first ; and sometimes, after a 

 longer interval, he indulges in this short course of 

 gymnastics a third time. If the observer has remained 

 in the same place from the first appearance of the bird, 

 and carefully noted the spots from which he emerged, 

 he has seldom been disappointed of finding a nest in 

 the proper season, after a patient examination of the 

 heath and furze between them. We may well believe 

 that a less systematic exploration of an almost in- 

 terminable waste would be all but hopeless. The hen 

 is seldom seen except during the period of incubation, 

 and even then, when intruded upon, she drops noise- 

 lessly from her nest, and is quickly lost to sight. In 

 May, 1859, we had an opportunity of taking three 

 nests of this bird ; and we were struck with their great 

 resemblance to each other in every detail, not even 

 excepting their exterior decorations, which consisted 

 of numerous white silky cocoons of some tiny insect, 

 that had evidently been attached to the stems of 

 grass before these had been selected for building 

 purposes. Each nest was suspended from slender up- 

 right twigs of heath (not furze) by its margin, with 

 only an occasional and slight connection at the sides, 

 the lower part being quite free ; and this we were told 

 is generally the order of architecture of the Dartford 

 warbler. 



The Wood Wrens make their appearance among us 

 very early in spring. The notes of the Willow Wood 

 Wren {Phyllopneuste Sylvicola) and the Chuff Chaff 

 Phyllopneuste Hippolais) are often heard in March, 



T 



