AUG 1 iiu 
July, 1 914. The Irish Naturalist, 149 
OUR IRISH WARBLERS. 
BY REV. CHARLES W. BENSON, LL.D. 
To my mind the family Sylviadae or Warblers are the 
most interesting of all our songsters, though most of them 
are with us and vocal for only about three months in the 
year. The Rev. C. A. Johns in his excellent history of 
" British Birds in their Haunts," of which I am glad to see, 
a new edition has lately appeared, speaks of warblers as 
" small and delicately formed birds, most of which are 
migratory, frequenting in summer groves and woods and 
feeding principally on small insects which they collect among 
herbage on the bark of trees or on the ground." 
As their name denotes, the majority are musical. The 
greater number of these birds arrive in Ireland early in the 
spring, and sing during April, May, and June, a very few 
in July. Our resident warblers such as the Redbreast and 
the Hedge Sparrow may be heard in any month in the year. 
The " three feathered Kings of Song," as they have been 
called, are the Nightingale, the Blackcap, and the Garden 
Warbler. The first of these has never occurred in Ireland, 
and the other two are comparatively rare. 
Our lamented friend Mr. R. J. Ussher, in his great work, 
tells us that the Blackcap has now a wide range in Ireland, 
and that there are few counties in which it has not been 
observed. I have myself only identified it at the Dargle, 
at Bray, at Killiney Castle, and in the neighbourhood of 
Templeogue. It breeds, however, in the grounds of Mr. 
R. M. Barrington at Fassaroe, near Bray, every year. 
According to Mr. Harting the song is simply " delightful," 
rich and wild, and charming, but all too short, and in this 
respect my friend the late A. G. More remarked to me 
that Blackcaps, for some reason or other, did not seem to 
sing as well in Ireland as in England, where Gilbert White 
declared the song to be " full, sweet, deep, loud, and wild." 
It is said that some Americans came over to England 
especially to hear this famous songster, and found great 
difficulty in ascertaining its whereabouts, as so few in the 
country knew of its existence. 
A 
