BRITISH WARBLERS 



others. To that class in which the different faculties seem 

 to be specially active belongs the present species, and for 

 me there is in all their movements, in each action of the 

 short life they yearly spend amongst us, a fascination 

 difficult to account for, unless it be in part due to a grow- 

 ing appreciation of my ignorance of all that they have to 

 teach me. 



Arriving between April 17th and 23rd, they visit us in con- 

 siderable numbers, yet in a very erratic manner, favouring 

 one particular district one year and deserting it the next, 

 neither are they the least influenced in this respect by 

 climatic conditions ; for instance, in the years 1897 and 1903 

 they were so plentiful that during the first few hours of 

 daylight their favourite haunts appeared to be alive with 

 them, yet these two years were respectively very hot and dry, 

 and very wet and cold. In Worcestershire, where I have 

 principally studied this bird, they arrive during the night, 

 and commence to sing, uninfluenced by the weather, at day- 

 break; and in the immediate neighbourhood of the spot 

 they settle in they generally breed, although occasionally one 

 appears to be a wanderer, singing in a hedge by the roadside, 

 yet passing on before the next morning. If it were not for 

 its song, which is penetrating and arrests attention, it would 

 be a most difficult bird to find, for it is peculiarly skulking 

 in its habits, especially after eight o'clock in the morning until 

 about four in the afternoon. It spends the greater part of its 

 time either on the ground in the dense undergrowth, creeping 

 in low thick bushes a few feet high, or searching tall thick 

 hazels and hedgerows for food ten or twelve feet from the 

 ground, but never appears to frequent trees; and has at all 

 times, even when unconscious of any human presence, a 

 great aversion to showing itself in the open. During incuba- 

 tion, when the song partly ceases, these skulking habits are 

 more marked, since both sexes go to considerable trouble to 

 conceal themselves. 



They choose for themselves different and very varied spots, 



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