144 
SYLVIADiB. 
one egg on the 21st, and on the 26th it contained 
four.” 
“ The nest is composed of dry vegetable stalks, par¬ 
ticularly goose-grass, mixed with the tender dead branches 
of furze, not sufficiently hardened to become prickly; 
these are put together in a very loose manner, and in¬ 
termixed very sparingly with wool. In one of the nests 
was a single partridge’s feather. The lining is equally 
sparing, for it consists only of a few dry stalks of some 
fine species of carex, without a single leaf of the plant. 
This flimsy structure, which the eye pervades in all 
parts, much resembles the nest of the white-throat.” 
Two of these nests, each containing four or five eggs, 
are in the collection of Mr. Bond, and to him I owe 
the pleasure I derive from being able to describe this 
beautiful piece of workmanship myself. It is very 
different from those described by Montague, and is com¬ 
posed outwardly of umbelliferous plants, and moss, and 
bits of wool, exquisitely lined with the finest stalks and 
flowering tops of grasses without the seeds and as 
fine as the few horse-hairs mixed with them. It is 
an inch thick, and compactly built. 
The eggs of the Dartford Warbler are very difficult 
to obtain. I have seen them in few collections, and 
was indebted to the kindness of Mr. Burney for spe¬ 
cimens when busy with the former edition of this 
work; he took them near Oxford, after shooting the 
female from the nest, which was closely concealed in 
a thick covering of furze, and was composed of um¬ 
belliferous plants, and a small portion of moss, and was, 
as stated by Montague, a good deal like that of the 
white throat. 
The eggs are four or five in number, and bear some 
resemblance to those of the whitethroat, as well as those 
