49 6 
PERCHING BIRDS. 
Barred Warbler. 
Dartford Warbler.. 
The barred warbler (S. nisoria ) arrives in its summer quarters 
in Europe somewhat later than the majority of migrants, and takes 
up its abode chiefly in gardens; constructing a bulky nest, more compact than that 
of most warblers, of roots and dry stems neatly lined with horsehair or fibres. 
The nest is generally built in a thorn bush not far from the ground, and the eggs 
are huffish white spotted with brown and ash-colour. The barred warbler is shy and 
skulking in its habits, and even in confinement it retains this shyness, although 
this does not extend to birds reared from the nest. The adult male has the upper- 
parts brownish grey; the under-parts being greyish white, finely barred with brown. 
The Dartford warbler (S. undata ) 1 is a resident but local bird 
in the temperate parts of Europe, breeding also in the mountains of 
Algeria. It is a small, retiring species, fond of thick covert, and used to be tolerably 
common even in the neighbourhood of London until exterminated by several severe 
winters. Mr. Swaysland wrote to us in 1883 : “ I have taken several hundreds of 
eggs of the Dartford warbler within a few miles of Brighton, but the birds were 
all exterminated in a recent severe winter. I have not heard of any since, though 
formerly we could find a dozen pairs within a few miles. I have taken the eggs 
of a single pair three or four times in a season. If the nest contained three eggs 
when I first robbed it, the next clutch usually contained five eggs, but if it contained 
four eggs the first time the second laying usually consisted of the same number.” 
The Dartford warbler builds a very slight nest, composed of dry stalks and lined 
with finer stems added to a little wool. The nest is usually extremely difficult to 
find, and can only be discovered by patient observation of the old birds. Mr. 
Newman often observed the Dartford warbler in the neighbourhood of Godaiming, 
and has left the following sketch of its winter habits:—“ 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 its enjoy¬ 
ment. 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.” The egg of the Dartford 
warbler is white or buff in ground-colour, suffused with olive or reddish brown. 
The song of the male is lively, and often uttered upon the wing. The nestlings 
which Montagu reared began to sing as soon as they assumed adult plumage. The 
plumage of the adult male is very dark sooty brown, shading into slate-grey on 
the head; tail dark grey, the outside feathers tipped with white; the under-parts 
are chestnut-brown, shading into white on the centre of the belly, and having the 
feathers of the chin and upper throat tipped with white; the under tail-coverts 
are grey tipped with white. 
The willow The yellow-browed warbler ( Phylloscopus superciliosus ) figured 
Warblers. 0 n p. 505, is an example of a genus differing from the preceding by the 
supplemental bristles in front of those of the rictus of the gape being stronger and 
more numerous, while the beak is short and stout. The genus includes the chiff- 
chaff (P. collybita), wood-wren (P. sibilatrix), willow-wren (P. trochilus), etc. The 
yellow-browed warbler passes the summer in North Siberia, where Mr. Seebohm 
1 Frequently separated generically as Melizophilus. 
