The Dartionl Warhley. 
87 
tliilt you indicated the locality so cleai-ly." I was amused, and assured 
Iiini that 1 purposely, for obvious reasons, put the reader off the right 
track, as I was then, and still remain conscious that this, one of the 
few remaining favourite resorts where this rare and beautiful warbler 
is still to be found should be, as far as I was concerned, a secret. 
The fact tliat 1 mentioned Hampshire was because all authors 
of all ornithological works give proniiucnce to tliis count}' as the 
stronghold of tliis delightful bird, and I believe riglitly so. 
Howard Saunders says : " It is known to breed in nearly all the 
southern counties from Cornwall to Kent incdusive, cepeciaUji in llavtiJ- 
.fhire (the italics are mine), Surrey and Sussex ; sparingly in the 
valley of the Thames, and perhaps in some of the Midland counties ; 
while it has been observed in ('aml)ridgeshire ami undoid)tedly nests 
in Suffolk and Norfolk. 
In my former article 1 conducted my readers on a cycle tour 
to the southern borders of Surrey, and there left them while I pro- 
ceeded on my journey and eventually reached the goal I had been 
striving after for twenty years or more, and now I feel like crying Ex- 
celsior, for I believe I am the oidy Englishmen who can claim to have 
moulted the Dartford Warbler in captivity since the days of Colonel 
Montague. There is certainly no other authentic instance of anyone 
else having done so, and this is one of the very few British birds which 
has never been exhibited. 
A contributor to " Canary and Cage Bird Life " has brought 
forward a lot of evidence (?) with the intention of proving my claim to 
be erroneous, but has shown himself too apt to draw conclusions 
without sufhcient proof. In his " Ry-the-Way Notes" he says: — 
" But a word may be said about the well-known Smithers, of Cliurt, 
who must liave taken hundreds of eggs in his time— in the 
sixties and seventies of the last century I find it hard to 
believe that Smithers did not also take live birds." This statement I 
ara able to flatly contradict, Mr. Smithers never possessed a live bird 
in his life, though lie j^rocured hundreds of eggs through his agents 
for Mr. Gould. I make this statement on the authority of a friend of 
mine, who knew Mr. Smithers and is still in touch with liis sons. This 
selfsame friend is probably possessed of a greater knowledge of this 
rare warbler than any other man living. Though of lunuble calling- 
he is a naturalist whom I feel it is a great privilege to know, one of 
those men who know from personal observation, and not onh- from 
what they read in books. To walk with him across the heaths and 
commons, over the fields and meadows, or tlirougli the woods or forests 
