GARDEN WARBLER. 
Curruca hortensis, Bechst. 
La Bec-fin fauvette. 
Tuts unassuming and plain-coloured bird is one of the migratory species resorting to our island, where it 
arrives in the month of April, enlivening our gardens, coppices, and shrubberries with its cheerful notes ; and 
with so much melody does it pour forth its strains that it has often been put in competition with the Nightin- 
gale and Blackcap. 
Tn its habits it is shy and secluded, seldom showing itself, and its presence is often unsuspected until its 
song is heard. : 
Its range is very general over our island as well as over the whole of the temperate and southern portions 
of Europe. Soon after its appearance in this country the business of nidification is commenced, the nest 
being constructed among nettles, or any other rank herbage, and formed of roots, grasses, various other 
plants and moss interwoven together; the eggs, which are four in number, are yellowish grey, blotched with 
wood brown, principally at the larger end. 
The adults of both sexes do not differ in the tints of their plumage; the young, on the other hand, have the 
region of the eyes lighter, and the general colour of their plumage more olive. 
The adults may be thus briefly described : 
Upper surface ash grey, with a slight tinge of olive; sides of the neck ash grey; throat and under surface 
greyish white; flanks and breast slightly tinged with brown; bill brown; legs greyish brown. 
We have figured a male of the natural size. 
