BRITISH WARBLERS 
sometimes sit opposite to one another and bow in rather a 
curious manner, the feathers on their heads being erected and 
their tails outspread. One will suddenly commence to utter 
its harsh call note, and this is a signal for a number of them to 
collect and pursue each other vigorously, their whole demeanour 
being very much like that of the Blackcap. 
During September their numbers gradually decrease, and 
towards the end of that month the majority have left this 
country, though solitary individuals still remain until the 
early days of October. ‘Their food is similar to that of the 
Whitethroat. 
The song itself requires little description. It is by no 
means so highly developed a production as that of the White- 
throat. When the males first reach us in the spring they 
sing incessantly as they travel in search of food, but after the 
females arrive they are more silent than many other species, 
though solitary individuals can be heard warbling even as late 
as the end of June. Of imitation there is very little; I can 
only recollect hearing two species copied, z.e., the Linnet and 
Sedge Warbler, and this was during a male’s excitement at 
the presence of another male before the females had arrived. 
The song itself varies considerably in different countries and 
even in different districts. When in Hungary I pursued a 
male, which was singing continuously, for some distance before 
I discovered to what species the owner of the voice belonged. 
This local variation is a curious and marked feature of the 
song of many birds. For some years I was conscious of a 
difference in the song of individuals of the same species in 
districts not far apart, but until I commenced to keep records, 
and make mental comparisons in different and widely separated 
localities, I did not realise to what an extent this local varia- 
tion existed, and I was certainly not prepared to find so 
astonishing a divergence in the song of one and the same 
species. 
The Whitethroat that enlivens the roads and lanes of our 
Midland counties has a different voice from the Whitethroat 
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