BRITISH WARBLERS 



Though by no means so finished a songster as the Blackcap, 

 the bird nevertheless owns a beautiful warble, with which 

 fault can only be found on the score of monotony. There 

 is little range of tone in the song, none of those remarkable, 

 almost passionate, variations which indicate great vocal 

 development, and, so 'far as I can discover, very little 

 tendency to imitate the sounds produced by other species. 

 The ordinary call note is a single harsh note uttered slowly 

 or rapidly according to the emotional state of the bird, and 

 is similar, or nearly so, in both sexes. In addition to this 

 note there is the quiet "purring" of sexual or parental 

 emotion. The note of the young is somewhat similar to that 

 of the young of the Blackcap, but impossible to describe. 



The food consists principally of insects, green larvae form- 

 ing the staple diet of the young ; on one occasion I observed 

 some individuals early in the season feeding upon the young 

 shoots of the common Norway spruce. Fruit also is not 

 refused when the opportunity for securing it arises, and in 

 the autumn large quantities of elder berries are consumed. 



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