Frontispiece
to the first volume.
The Dartford Warbler,
Is a very rare species in England. The bird, in excellent preservation, was lent me to take a drawing of, by my good Friend. John Latham. Esq., of Dartford, in Kent; in whose neighbourhood it was taken, and whose description is as follows.
This is scarce bigger than a Wren, but as the tail is about half the length, measures about five inches. The Bill is black with a white base, and the upper mandible a little curved at the tip. Irides, red; eyelids, deep crimson. The upper part of the head, neck, and body, a dusky reddish brown. Breast and belly, deep ferrugenius; the middle of the belly, white. Quills, dusky, edged with white; bastard wing, white; the exterior web of the outmost tail feathers, white; the rest dusky, and half the length of the bird.
A pair of these birds was brought to me, killed by a friend on Boxley-heath, near Dartford, sitting on a furze bush. They feed on flies, springing from the bush on spying one within reach, and returning again to the same place repeatedly.
See "Latham's General Synopsis of Birds;"
volume 4, p. 435. No. 27.
