DARTFORD WARBLER. 



markings becoming more dense, and forming a 

 zone at the larger end. 



The song (says Montagu) is different from any- 

 thing of the kind I ever heard, but in part re- 

 sembles most that of the Stonechat. 



An amusing writer in the Magazine of Natural 

 History says : " If you have ever watched a common 

 Wren, (a Kitty Wren we call her,) you must have 

 observed that she cocked her tail bolt upright, 

 strained her little beak at right angles, and her 

 throat in the same fashion, to make the most of 

 her fizgig of a song, and kept on jumping and 

 jerking and frisking about, for all the world as 

 though she worked by steam : well, that's the 

 precise character of the Dartford Warbler, or, as 

 we call it (at Godalming), the " Furze Wren." 

 When the leaves are off the trees, and the chill 

 winter winds have driven the summer birds to the 

 olive-gardens of Spain, or across the Straits, the 

 Furze Wren is in the height of his enjoyment. I 

 have seen them by dozens skipping about the furze, 

 lighting for a moment upon the very point of the 

 sprigs, and instantly diving out of sight again, 

 singing out their angry impatient ditty, for ever 

 the same. They prefer those places where the 

 furze is very thick, high, and difficult to get in." 



Colonel Montagu, in describing the habits of 

 some nestlings of this species which he reared 

 in a cage, says, " Nothing can exceed the activity 

 of these little creatures ; they are in perpetual 

 motion the whole day, throwing themselves into 

 various attitudes and gesticulations, erecting the 



