418 THE DARTFORD WARBLER. 



excellent health, and will make them sing more, and louder than 

 they would otherwise do." 



ADDITIONAL. We are tempted to add to the above a lively 

 description of the bird given by RUSTICUS, in his Letters 



{"om G-odalming, where he says, " "We have a bird common 

 ere, which I fancy is almost unknown in other districts, for I 

 have scarcely ever seen it in collections ; and from the few re- 

 marks about' it, and sketches of it in natural histories, no correct 

 idea can be found. I mean the FURZE WEEN, or, as authors are 

 pleased to call it, the Dartford Warbler. We learn that the 

 epithet Dartford, is derived from the little Kentish town of that 

 name ; and that it was given to the Furze Wren, because he was 

 first noticed in that neighbourhood. The term ' Warbler' is in- 

 appropriate, as the Furze Wren is a poor Warbler. If you 

 have ever watched a Common Wren (a Kitty Wren we call her), 

 you must have observed that she cocked her tail bolt upright, 

 strained her little beak at right angles, and her throat in the same 

 fashion, to make the most of her fizgig of a song, and kept on 

 jumping, and jerking, and frisking about, for all the world as 

 though she was worked by steam : well, that's more the charac- 

 ter of the Dartford Warbler, or, as we call it, the Furze Wren. 

 When the leaves are off the trees, and the chill winter winds 

 have driven the summer birds to the olive gardens of Spain, or 

 across the Straits, the Furze Wren is in the height of his 

 enjoyment. I have seen them by dozens skipping about the 

 furze, lighting for a moment upon the very point of the sprigs, 

 and instantly diving out of sight again, singing out their angry 

 impatient ditty, for ever the same. Perched on the back of a 

 good tall nag, and riding quietly along the outside, while the 

 fox-hounds have been drawing the furze-fields, I have often seen 

 these birds come to the tops of the furze. They are, however, 

 very hard to shoot, darting down directly they see the flash, or 

 hear the cap crack, I don't know which. I have seen excellent 

 shots miss them, while rabbit-shooting with beagles. They 

 prefer those places where the furze is very thick, high, and diffi- 

 cult to get in. This bird breeds every year in the furze bushes 

 in Munsted, Highdown, Headley, Elstead, and many other 

 heaths in our neighbourhood. And although it is so common in 

 the winter, and so active and noisy when disturbed by dogs and 

 guns, still, in the breeding season, it is a shy, skulking bird, 

 hiding itself in thick places, much in the manner of the Grass- 

 hopper Lark, and seldom allowing them to hear the sound of its 

 voice." 



