718 



DARTFORD WARBLER. 



outer feather is tipped with white, and edged with 

 the same on the exterior web ; the next slightly 

 tipped with white; the rest of the tail dusky; the 

 middle feathers edged with ash-colour, and up- 

 wards of two inches in length : legs yellowish : 

 the female and young birds are of a much lighter 

 colour, and are without the rufous breast. 



This interesting species was first taken near 

 Dartford, in Kent, and from that circumstance 

 the name is derived; but until the late Colonel 

 Montagu was so fortunate as to detect it in the 

 south of Devon and Cornw^all, nothng was know^n 

 of its habits, which have been very fully described 

 in the Linnean Society's Transactions by that 

 gentleman. He first observed it near Penryn, 

 in Cornwall, frequenting the furzy hills, from the 

 month of September till Christmas, when a fall of 

 snow suddenly drove the birds away. A few years 

 afterwards he discovered a nest and young, which 

 latter he reared till they arrived at maturity : the 

 nest was composed of dry vegetable stalks, parti- 

 cularly goose-grass, mixed with tender branches 

 of furze, not sufficiently hardened to become 

 prickly ; they are put together in a very loose 

 manner, and sparingly mixed with wool; the 

 lining consists of a few stalks of carex : the whole 

 nest is so slight, that it can be seen through in all 

 directions : the eggs are tinged with green, and 

 are speckled all over with olivaceous brown and 

 cinereous ; the markings becoming more dense, and 

 forming a zone at the larger end : the young con- 

 sume an amazing quantity of provisions, as Colonel 



