Page:The British Warblers A History with Problems of Their Lives - 4 of 9.djvu/53

 the Midland counties. The last week in April is the usual time, my earliest record being April 18th, but in a cold and unfavourable season their advent may be delayed as late as the second week in May. They arrive during the night or in the early hours of the morning, and when the latter is the case, solitary individuals can sometimes be seen about 6 o'clock travelling from tree to tree, searching for food as they wend their way along, always moving in one direction.

Although they are so closely related to the Whitethroat, no one could help noticing a very remarkable difference between the two species. True it is that they inhabit hedgerows and feed upon similar food, but the small peculiarities, the sum total of which form a character, are very distinct in the two birds. Both are active, but the superabundance of vigour, so prominent at periods of excitement in the life of the Whitethroat, is not so pronounced in this species.

The male, when in perfect plumage, is very neat in appearance, the contrast between the grey and the white being especially striking; but such males are by no means common in the spring, the majority being duller in appearance. Hedgerows, gardens, the outskirts of small plantations and orchards are their favourite resorts, and although they visit this country in varying numbers from year to year, yet I have never found them so plentiful as other members of the genus. When the first males arrive they are very restless, travelling along the tops of such trees as elms, or amongst the fruit trees in orchards, to which they are very partial, wandering from tree to tree in search of the Chironomidæ, halting only occasionally to sing. In this way they travel rapidly through the orchards and hedgerows, apparently in one direction, but in reality they do not leave a certain district, although the extent of land over which they wander is large. Now in this peculiarity—namely, their liking for tall trees and the large area over which they wander when they first arrive—they differ from the Whitethroat, and this characteristic is more interesting because, upon the arrival