30 
W. BICKERTOX-REVIEW OF 
would with patience and perseverance he fairly certain to succeed 
in establishing further records of their presence. The two species 
to which I refer are the Dartford warbler and the wood-lark. 
Of the first-named—the Dartford warbler or furze-wren (Silvia 
undata )—the only Hertfordshire record we have is given as follows 
in Mr. Crossman’s list:—“A pair were seen by Mr. C. Worte on 
1st May, 1897, on Common Wood Common, near Chipperfield, and 
were apparently nesting there. This is the only recorded occur¬ 
rence of this bird in Hertfordshire, although many parts of the 
county abound in places suitable for it.” 
As its trivial names connote, it is a wren-like bird (and therefore 
small), a warbler, and one that finds its favourite haunts among the 
thick furze bushes which cover so many of our commons. Surely 
some of our widely-extending Hertfordshire commons offer it the 
very habitat which it loves, and as Mr. Howard Saunders states 
that it is more generally distributed in England than was for a long 
time supposed, that it is most abundant in the South of England, 
having bred in every county from Cornwall to Kent inclusive, and 
perhaps also in some of the Midland counties, and that it has of 
late years been extending its range both westward and northward, 
I think we have every reason to believe that careful observation by 
some of the members of our Society who reside near the furze- 
covered commons of the county would establish its undoubted title 
to a place in the list of Hertfordshire breeding-species. 
Let any observer note, however, that, as Mr. Saunders states, u it 
is a skulking little bird, especially in dull rainy weather; and a 
patch of gorse holding two or three pairs maybe easily passed over, 
even by a careful observer, as untenanted.” Mr. W. H. Hudson 
states that it is “ so elusive, that it is hard to find, and harder still 
to observe narrowly. Its somewhat singular appearance among the 
warblers—its small size, short, rounded wings, great length of tail, 
and very dark colour—its peculiar song, and excessively lively and 
restless habits, have all contributed to make it a fascinating subject 
to British Ornithologists.” 
Of the other resident to which I referred—the wood-lark (Alauda 
arborea) —Mr. Howard Saunders says : “ Although nowhere plenti¬ 
ful, it is most frequent in some of the southern counties ; it occurs 
on the Chiltern Hills, and is also fairly distributed along the dry, 
wooded, and rising ground on both sides of the valley of the 
Thames, as well as over the line of the chalk formation which runs 
from Bucks to West Norfolk and Suffolk.” 
Surely this is equivalent to almost telling us outright that the 
bird is a Hertfordshire bird, and yet, as I have pointed out, only 
one record of its presence has been made. This is given as follows 
in Mr. Crossman’s list referred to above:—“ The only record 
which I can find of this bird in Hertfordshire is a statement that 
in 1878 and 1879, during the month of March, this species was 
observed in a field close to Symond’s Hyde Wood, in the parish of 
Sandridge, by Mr. A. E. Griffith, who had no doubt that it bred 
there.” 
