The Dartford Warbler (Sylvia undata) is so named because it was first identified near Dartford in Kent, England. Welsh naturalist Thomas Pennant described the bird based on two specimens obtained by ornithologist John Latham in April 1773 on Bexley Heath, near Dartford in Kent. Pennant asked Latham to name the new bird, and Latham chose Sylvia dartfordiensis, or Dartford Warbler. It is slate-grey above and deep wine-red below with a distinctive red eye-ring, a thin pointed bill, and a long tail which is often held cocked at a jaunty angle while it sings its scratchy, rambling song from a perch on the top of a gorse bush. It feeds on spiders and caterpillars. The Dartford Warbler is found from southern Britain, western France, and southern Europe to Italy and Sicily, and North Africa (where it frequents low sparse scrub in semi-desert).
