THE BIRD-LIFE OF LONDON 



just possible that it has been overlooked in some of 

 them. 



Although there is much of intense interest in the 

 habits of the Dartford Warbler it will not be necessary 

 to dwell upon them at any great length in the pre- 

 sent volume, because* the bird is so utterly local, and is 

 not likely to come before the notice of many observers 

 in Greater London. The most remarkable fact about 

 this species is that it is a resident ; all the other Warblers 

 are migrants, yet this tiny creature manages to exist in 

 England through the severest winters. It may be that 

 it can always find food of some kind amongst the dense 

 gorse coverts it frequents, such spots offering a sanctuary 

 to those lower forms of insect life upon which this 

 Warbler largely subsists. A good deal still requires to 

 be investigated concerning the food of this particular 

 species. There are few shyer or more restless and re- 

 tiring birds than the Dartford Warbler. It keeps close 

 to the gorse, only at fitful intervals appearing on the 

 higher sprays, and then but for a moment or so. Some- 

 times it indulges in a little soaring flight above the cover, 

 but soon drops down again into it like a stone. Its call 

 note of pit-it-chou is very characteristic, but it also 

 utters a sound like the familiar tay-tay of the White- 

 throat. During the breeding season between May and 

 June the cock bird may be heard to warble a short yet 

 musical little song. The nest for the first brood is made 

 in April, for the second in June. It is usually placed close 

 to the ground, amongst dead gorse and grass, a loosely 

 built structure, made of round dry grass stems, bits of 

 dry gorse, and moss, and lined with scraps of wool, finer 

 grass stalks, and hair. The four or five eggs so closely 

 resemble those of the Whitethroat that they can only be 

 distinguished with the greatest difficulty. A? a rule the 

 markings are perceptibly more clearly defined, and 

 darker. 

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