128 



DARTFORD WARBLER. 



are of a dusky-brown ; cheeks dark cinereous ; throat, neck, and breast 

 fine deep ferruginous ; sides the same, but not so bright ; middle of the 

 belly white ; quills dusky, slightly edged with dark cinereous on the 

 outer webs, those next the body and coverts with dark ferruginous 

 brown ; at the bend of the wing, under the alula spuria, is a spot 

 of white ; the tail is considerably cuneiform, the outer feather is tipped 

 with white, and edged with the same on the exterior web ; the next 

 slightly tipped with white ; the remainder of these, and all the others, 

 dusky ; the middle ones edged with cinereous : legs yellowish. In some 

 the throat is speckled with white. 



The female and young birds are of a lighter colour, and more rufous. 



It is called the Dartford Warbler, from having been first discovered in 

 England near that place ; it is, however, a scarce species, rarely noticed 

 in this country. Dr. Latham seems to have been the first discoverer 

 of this bird in England, and communicated it to Mr. Pennant, who first 

 published it in his British Zoology, a pair having been killed on Bex- 

 ley Heath, near Dartford, on the 10th of April, 1773. Since that time-, 

 Dr. Latham informs us, several were shot in the winter of 1783, on a 

 common, near Wandsworth, in Surrey, now in the Leverean Museum; 

 from which circumstance that author very justly observes, that if it is 

 found here only as a winter migrant, he cannot reconcile the circum- 

 stance of its breeding in France, (which has been said to be the case,) 

 as all migratory birds go northward to breed, not to a warmer climate. 

 In the month of September, 1796, we observed many of these birds 

 about Falmouth, in Cornwall, frequenting the furzy hills, and killed 

 several from that time to the 24th of December, when a sudden fall of 

 snow, that covered the ground for some time, drove them from that 

 part. Many of these birds, on their first appearance, were in their 

 nestling feathers, from which some hopes were entertained of their 

 breeding in those parts ; but with the most diligent search, not one was 

 to be found the following summer ; nor indeed did they ever return 

 after the snow had driven them away. 



*" My opinion," says Montagu, in the Linnaean Transactions, " that 

 this species of warbler bred with- us, was greatly strengthened, by 

 a letter which I received from a scientific friend in Cornwall, well 

 known in the literary world, Mr. Stackhouse, of Pendarvis, who as- 

 sured me that his brother had observed these birds for several years to 

 inhabit furze, near Truro ; that last year, as well as the present, they 

 were plentiful during the summer season ; and that he had not only 

 seen them every month in the year, but had observed young ones soon 

 after they had left the nest, though his search for the nest and eggs had 

 been in vain. 



