THE DARTFORD WARBLER 



SYLVIA PROFINCIALIS 



LOCAL names in surrounding counties : 



STATUS IN BRITISH AVIFAUNA : An extremely local resi- 

 dent in the southern, eastern, and central counties of 

 England ; extinct in certain localities where it was once 

 common. 



RADIAL DISTRIBUTION WITHIN FIFTEEN MILES OF ST. 

 PAUL'S : The Dartford Warbler is a species in which I have 

 always taken exceptional interest. Nearly thirty years 

 ago I obtained its nest in the most northerly recorded 

 locality in England (in the Rivelin Valley, on the out- 

 skirts of Sheffield). The fact has been ignored by some 

 recent writers, and doubted by others (including Mr. 

 Saunders, for reasons best known to himself), but the 

 nest and eggs were in my collection for years, and at 

 the time I took them I stood for several minutes examin- 

 ing the mother bird as she brooded on the nest within reach 

 of my hand. I thought little of the occurrence at the 

 time, and it was not recorded till several years after- 

 wards in the History of British Birds. A special interest 

 also attaches to this species, because it was actually first 

 discovered and made known to science from specimens 

 obtained on Bexley Heath, near Dartford, some fifteen 

 miles from St. Paul's. It, is certainly a very local bird in 

 the Metropolitan area, and may nest only in suitable 

 spots in Surrey and Kent at the extreme limits of the 

 radius. It has been recorded from Wimbledon, as 

 having bred at Hampstead, as frequenting Stanmore 

 Common and Harrow Weald Common, and as having 

 been obtained at Old Oak Common and Wormwood 

 Scrubbs, both in the Willesden area. There are many 

 gorse coverts within the Metropolitan radius where this 

 skulking bird might find a suitable haunt, and it is 



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