and some other British Birds. 325 



•greatest difficulty found. The continued flirting of these 

 birds from bush to bush, and through them, is so extremely- 

 deceitful, that it is scarcely possible to notice the spot, 

 amongst such an uniformity of cover, where they deliver the 

 contents of their bill, especially as they frequently retire 

 from a very different part. 



Like the other, this nest is composed of dry vegetable 

 stalks, particularly goose grass ; mixed with the tender dead 

 branches of furze, not sufficiently hardened to become prick- 

 ly; these are put together in a very loose manner, and in- 

 termixed very sparingly with wool. In one of the nests was 

 a single partridge's feather. The lining is as sparing, for it 

 consists only of a few dry stalks of a fine species of carex, 

 without a single leaf of the plant, and only two or three of 

 the panicles. 



This thin flimsy structure which the eye pervades in all 

 parts, much resembles that of the whitethroat. The eggs are 

 also somewhat similar to those of Sylvia cinerea, but rather 

 less, weighing only 22 grains; like the eggs of that species, 

 they possess a slight tinge of green ; they are fully speckled 

 all over with olivaceous-brown and cinereous, on a greenish- 

 white ground, the markings becoming more dense, forming 

 a zone at the larger end. 



Whether the Dartford Warbler usually breeds so late, is 

 not at present to be determined ; but as I found two pairs 

 with young at the same time, and have great reason to be- 

 lieve another pair was sitting about the same period, it is 

 reasonable to conclude that they do not- propagate very 

 early, — or how are we to account for the loss of the first 

 nests of all these, for there were no young birds to be found 

 flying; amongst the furze ? 



I shall now return to the young birds, which I considered 

 as no small treasure: the first, which was found on the 

 ground, had been three days in my possession before the 

 others were fit to take*, and then being able to fly a little, 



* There is an exact period of age which is the best for rearing young birds 

 by hand, this is when the tips of the quills and the greater coverts of the 

 wings expose a portion of their fibrous ends. 



X 3 was 



