■WAEBLEUS. 31 



knowing when that might be, I was obliged to go home : 

 and the next day when I went to look for them, only a few 

 were left. 



These birds do not leave us as a rule before the first summer 

 visitors have arrived. In the case I have just mentioned, 

 the spring was a warm one, and the very next day I saw 

 the ever-welcome Chiff-chaff, which is the earliest to come 

 and the latest to go, of all the delicate warblers which come 

 to find a summer's shelter in our abundant trees and herbage. 



I use this word ' warbler ' in a sense which calls for a word 

 of explanation ; for not only are the birds which are called 

 in the natural history books by this name often very difficult 

 to distinguish, but the word itself has been constantly used 

 to denote a certain class of birds, without any precise explana- 

 tion of the species meant to be included in it. Nor is it in 

 itself a very exact word; some of the birds which are habitually 

 called warblers do not warble in the proper sense of the word,^ 

 and many others who really warble, such as the common 

 Hedge-sparrow, have no near relationship to the class I am 

 speaking of. But as it is a term in use, and a word that 

 pleases, I will retain it in this chapter, with an explanation 

 which may at the same time help some beginner in dealing 

 with a difficult group of birds. 



* Wliat this sense is may be guessed from Milton, Paradise Lost, 



Bk. V. 195 — 



' Fountains, and ye that warble as ye flow 

 Melodious murmurs, warbling tune his praise.' 

 The word seems to express a kind of singing which is soft, continuous, 

 and ' legato.' 



