Page:The British Warblers A History with Problems of Their Lives - 1 of 9.djvu/50

 others. To that class in which the different faculties seem to be specially active belongs the present species, and for me there is in all their movements, in each action of the short life they yearly spend amongst us, a fascination difficult to account for, unless it be in part due to a growing appreciation of my ignorance of all that they have to teach me.

Arriving between April 17th and 23rd, they visit us in considerable numbers, yet in a very erratic manner, favouring one particular district one year and deserting it the next, neither are they the least influenced in this respect by climatic conditions; for instance, in the years 1897 and 1903 they were so plentiful that during the first few hours of daylight their favourite haunts appeared to be alive with them, yet these two years were respectively very hot and dry, and very wet and cold. In Worcestershire, where I have principally studied this bird, they arrive during the night, and commence to sing, uninfluenced by the weather, at daybreak; and in the immediate neighbourhood of the spot they settle in they generally breed, although occasionally one appears to be a wanderer, singing in a hedge by the roadside, yet passing on before the next morning. If it were not for its song, which is penetrating and arrests attention, it would be a most difficult bird to find, for it is peculiarly skulking in its habits, especially after eight o'clock in the morning until about four in the afternoon. It spends the greater part of its time either on the ground in the dense undergrowth, creeping in low thick bushes a few feet high, or searching tall thick hazels and hedgerows for food ten or twelve feet from the ground, but never appears to frequent trees; and has at all times, even when unconscious of any human presence, a great aversion to showing itself in the open. During incubation, when the song partly ceases, these skulking habits are more marked, since both sexes go to considerable trouble to conceal themselves.

They choose for themselves different and very varied spots,