BRITISH WARBLERS 



especially when he will do nothing but whisper, for this 

 ventriloquistic effect is not so marked when singing loudly. 

 Until pairing has taken place the song is almost incessant, 

 morning and evening, rare during the daytime, more frequent 

 at night ; afterwards, and until the young are able to take 

 care of themselves, it almost ceases, until it becomes a mere 

 apology of the song of the mating season, often reduced to 

 a few crackling notes, heard on a hot afternoon or during 

 the first hour or so of dawn. To this partial cessation of 

 the song may possibly be traced the belief that in certain 

 districts the birds do not stop to breed, but are only to be 

 found on their way to their breeding quarters ; yet it is 

 characteristic of many of the warblers, but perhaps more 

 marked in the one under consideration ; and thus the theory 

 of the male lightening the female's task of incubation by 

 song becomes a fanciful one, having little foundation of fact 

 to recommend it, and against it the weighty evidence of 

 Nature who always strives for a more complete concealment 

 of her children. Before the arrival of the females, the males 

 during the first few hours of daylight are very fond of playing 

 with one another ; and although their games are not to us 

 very interesting, yet considerable energy is expended on them 

 by the birds themselves. One male darts off after another 

 one,- pursuing him with very rapid flight into some thick 

 bush ; here he chases him up and down and along the 

 branches with tail outspread and wings extended and slowly 

 flapping, his behaviour being exactly similar to that during 

 courtship, occasionally making use of a very curious note, 

 much like the scolding of the Garden Warbler {Sylvia 

 hortensis) when its nest is approached ; and this sound 

 appears to be produced with considerable exertion. 



On the arrival of the females, about April 27th, ten days or 

 so after the males, the courtship is immediately commenced. 

 No period in the life-history of the individuals of any species 

 is so interesting to watch or so full of significance as this. 

 Every nerve is strained to a degree which makes incidents in 



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