The Warblers 
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Family: Sylviidae 
THE WARBLERS 
It is from this numerous family that Britain wins her com¬ 
pany of sweetest songsters. Of the twenty-one singing 
members of the family, however, four only are permanent 
residents in the British Isles, the remaining seventeen being 
summer visitors. Of the four residents, the golden-crested wren 
is partly migratory, huge flocks crossing the North Sea in 
common with other migrants, but numbers of the birds never¬ 
theless may be found in the islands throughout the year. 
The foremost songster of the warblers, and of all the singers, 
is of course the nightingale; a bird whose song has been the 
theme of the writers of all ages; a song inimitable for variety, 
for quality of note, and for sustained sweetness as well as 
power of voice. No British bird possessing the migratory 
instinct has yet been induced to accept New Zealand as a 
permanent home, though the native birds of Britain have in 
most instances taken kindly to these more genial southern 
isles; and unless the natural difficulty, whatever it may be, 
can be overcome, the exquisite songs of the nightingale, the 
blackcap, and indeed most of the true songsters of Britain, 
are denied to New Zealand. The nightingale, reed-warbler, 
wren (Tr., Vol 30, 1800, p. 273), and white-throat (YH, Ed. 4, 
vol. 1, p. 408), have all at one time or another been brought 
here and liberated, but there is some essential condition 
lacking, and none has become established. The only bird of the 
family to accept New Zealand as a home is the hedge-sparrow, 
whose quiet song may be heard in many parts of the islands. 
Whilst numbers of the Sylviidae may be indifferent songsteis, 
there still remain the nightingale, blackcap, garden-warbler, 
reed-warbler, sedge-warbler, greater white-throat, and robin, 
all fine songsters, and the grasshopper-warbler, Dartford- 
warbler, hedge-sparrow, lesser white-throat, all fair songsters, 
