FURZE-WREN. 
27 
We have a bird common here, which, I fancy, is almost 
unknown in other districts, for I have scarcely ever seen it 
in collections ; and, from the few remarks about it and 
sketches of it in natural histories, no correct idea can be 
formed. I mean the Furze-v^^ren, or, as authors are 
pleased to call it, the Dartford warbler. We learn that the 
epithet Dartford is derived from the little Kentish town of 
that name, and that it was given to the furze-wren because 
he was first noticed in that neighbourhood : the term 'war- 
bler ' is inappropriate, as the furze-wren is a poor warbler. 
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 was worked by steam : 
well, that's more the character of the Dartford warbler, or, 
as we call it, the furze-wren. When the leaves are off 
the trees, and the chill winter winds have driven the sum- 
mer 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. Perched on the back of a good 
tall nag, and riding quietly along the outside, while the fox- 
hounds have been drawing the furze-fields, I have often 
seen these birds come to the tops of the furze. They 
are, however, very hard to shoot ; darting down directly 
they see the flash, or hear the cap crack, I don't know 
which. I have seen excellent shots miss them, while rab- 
bit-shooting with beagles. They prefer those places where 
