50 BIRDS OF MIDDLESEX. 



Occasionally instances have occurred of Black- 

 caps being shot, and others heard, during winter, 

 in the neighbourhood of London. 



Mr. Shirley Hibberd says :* "At Dulwich, Horn- 

 sey, Kensington, and St. John's Wood, the Blackcap 

 may be heard every season, soon after the last days 

 of March, but it makes its way only into such of the 

 more urban districts as enclose within their boun- 

 daries much rural scenery." 



In a subsequent note the same writer remarks 

 that " many true British residents are true migrants 

 as to London, and all the true migrants come into 

 song later near London than elsewhere throughout 

 the land." 



GARDEN WARBLER, Sylvia hortensis. A summer 

 visitant, but less common than the last. In some 

 seasons, however, I have found both this and the 

 last species very plentiful in the Hampstead woods. 

 The Garden Warbler is a very beautiful songster, 

 and will sometimes sit in the midst of a thick bush 

 in the evening, like a Nightingale, and maintain a 

 continued warble for twenty minutes without a 

 pause. Its song is somewhat irregular, both in tune 

 and time, but it is wonderfully deep and mellow for 

 so small a bird. It sometimes commences its song 

 like a Blackbird, but always ends with its own. In 

 general habits it somewhat resembles the Willow 



* ' Intellectual Observer,' No. XXXIX., p. 174. 



