U BIRDS BROWN ABOVE AND WHITE BELOW. 



white, with a mddy cast on breast and flanks ; bill 

 brown ; legs lead-colour. Summer migrant. 



Eggs. — 4—5, white, marbled with ash and warm 

 brown, having also a few dark-brown spots and 

 streaks; '75 x -6 inch (plate 124). 



Nest. — Of dry grass, moss, and wool, lined with 

 fine root-fibres and hair, and placed in low bushes or 

 thick herbage. 



Distribution. — Distributed locally and sparsely 

 throughout England ; increasingly rare and local in 

 Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, in the order named. 



The Garden-Warbler is a very near relative of the 

 Blackcap, which it closely resembles in all particulars 

 except the distinctive black cap. Its sober colouring 

 and lack of any bold feature make it harder to 

 identify. It builds its nest in low bush growth, and 

 frequents wooded districts and orchards, where it 

 seeks its insect-food in summer by canvassing the 

 ends of the twigs, or by darting out to take a fly on 

 the wing in the manner of a Flycatcher. Later it 

 feeds on elder-berries and other berries and fruits. 

 Its song is its surest distinguishing mark. It is a 

 beautiful warbling, lacking the dash and brilliancy of 

 the Blackcap's song, which in other ways it closely 

 resembles ; but it is peculiar in this, that it is often 

 more sustained than the song of any warbling 

 songster, as if the singer, instead of flinging out a 

 finished strain for the delectation of others, were 

 warbling to itself a long desultory song, lasting 

 for minutes — sometimes several minutes — at a time. 

 There is no other warbling songster with so sus- 



