92 IN THE GREEN LEAF 



II. COVERT WARBLERS 



Where large heaths and commons run con- 

 tinuously for miles, broken by ponds, pools, 

 and wet plashes, well covered by thick old 

 furze-coverts and thorn-bushes both white 

 and black in such districts you may expect to 

 see the "fuz-wren," the Dartford warbler, or, 

 as it is sometimes called, the fire-eyed chat. 

 As the bird was first noticed at Dartford, or 

 near it, in the latter part of the seventeenth 

 century, it has derived one of its names from 

 that slight accident ; but ornithological research 

 from that date has extended in all directions, 

 and at the present time, although from the 

 small creature's habits it must be to a certain 

 extent local, several places in Kent, Sussex, 

 Surrey, and Hampshire are known to us where 

 it may be called abundant, taking into con- 

 sideration its hideling ways. The colouring 

 of the bird is as quiet as its way of living ; it 

 is dark grey above, has a fan -shaped tail, 

 is slightly edged with white on the outside 

 feathers, the breast is warm chestnut, and the 

 under parts are a dull white ; and from the tip 

 of its bill to the end of its tail it measures five 



