THROUGH THE YEAR 41 



out the year, and in other parts of Italy. The Sar- 

 dinian warbler was just beginning to build when I 

 came away, but the only nest I found was a last 

 year's nest slung in a garden shrub six feet or so 

 from the ground, reminding me of a blackcap's in 

 material and in the weaving, but deeper than a 

 blackcap's. The Sardinian warbler is not unlike 

 our white throat plus a jet black cap, and its hurried, 

 jumbled little song is distinctly white throat-like. 

 I have read in a book on European birds that the 

 Sardinian warbler, like our whitethroat, tosses itself 

 singing into the air ; but though I heard a good 

 many Sardinian warblers, I did not notice this ; 

 the habit, at any rate, cannot be so usual with the 

 Sardinian warbler as with the whitethroat. 



Though a garden bird really a " garden warbler,'* 

 as ours is not very happily named the Sardinian 

 warbler is not easy to watch or even to see. Because 

 it is shy, or because it is so extremely restless, one 

 can as a rule catch only a glimpse of it among the 

 bloom and thick leaves, but its scolding note is co- 

 stant, and the glimpses we get are worth having, 

 for the grey dress and the pure white throat and 

 black cap make a charming combination. In the 

 garden under the Apennines I heard a trio, the per- 

 formers being a nightingale, a blackcap, and a Sar- 

 dinian warbler, all three close together in the same 

 group of trees and bushes. 



The nightingale utterly outsang the others, 

 though there were a few blackcap notes more 

 liquid-lovely, I thought, than those of any bird; 

 D 



