DARTFORD WARBLER. 415 



published a description of this bird, illustrated by a figure by Daubeutou, 

 under the name of Le Pitchou, from an example which had beeu sent to 

 him from Marseilles. When Latham wrote his 'Index Ornithologicus/ 

 he had already discovered the identity of the Marseilles bird with his 

 Dartt'ord Warbler. 



The geographical distribution of this little Warbler is a somewhat 

 remarkable one. It is not known to be anywhere a migratory bird*. 

 Its headquarters appear to be the basin of the Mediterranean, where it 

 occurs in Spain, the extreme south of France, Corsica, Sardinia, Italy, 

 and Sicily. It has been recorded from Greece and Asia Minor ; but no 

 recent ornithologists have met with it in those countries. Canon Tristram 

 obtained it in Palestine; and Heuglin found it near Alexandria. It is 

 a resident in Morocco and Algeria. On the shores of the Atlantic the 

 mild winters produced by the Gulf-stream have enabled it to push 

 much further north, and it is found in Portugal and the extreme west of 

 France. In England it is principally confined to the counties bordering 

 the Channel, but also occurs in the counties of Surrey, Oxford, Wor- 

 cester, Leicester, and Derby, and has been found as far north as South 

 Yorkshire, where Dixou obtained its nest in the neighbourhood of Sheffield. 

 Its numbers would probably increase, and its range continue to extend 

 further north, were it not that in some years a sudden and heavy fall 

 of snow, or an unusually long-continued frost, almost exterminates it in. 

 some localities. 



In summer the Dartford Warbler lives almost entirely in the furze 

 bushes ; hence its local name of Fiirze-Wreu. In winter, though it niav 

 often be seen in its summer haunts, the necessity of procuring food 

 prompts it to visit the turnip-fields, or to range along the coast. Its long 

 tail and short rounded wings do not seem adapted to extensive flights ; 

 but it has nevertheless been twice seen on Heligoland. It is seldom seen 

 on the wing. At Biarritz I found them frequenting the reeds on the 

 banks of a small lake. The first sight I had of one was that of a little 

 dark bird with a fan-like tail suddenly appearing amongst the reeds, crossing 

 a small patch where they had been cut down, and as suddenly and silently 

 disappearing amongst the reeds on the opposite side. Occasionally, as 

 we walked ou the bank of the lake, we heard a loud, clear, melodious 

 pitch'-oo repeated once or twice amongst the reeds. The note was so 

 musical that for a moment oue might imagine that a Nightingale was 

 beginning to strike up a tune. Now and then we saw the bird appear for 



* The statement in Dresser's ' Birds of Europe,' that " Heuglin says that it is very rare 

 in Lower Egflat, where it appears with the Subalpine Warbler and RiippelTs Warbler 

 between the 20th and 2oth March," is incorrect. Heuglin says that he saw it between 

 those dates, in the company of the birds named : but there is not a word said to 

 that it is migratory, or that the dates given are the times of its arrival. 



