36 THE WOOD-WREN 



But almost the fairest gem in the setting of the 

 perfect day was the little bird fluttering among 

 the flowers. The sun shone on her as, ever rest- 

 less, she moved towards the nest. From a 

 distance she was hardly to be distinguished 

 among her surroundings, but now so near was 

 she to the watcher that the diverse markings of 

 the feathers were distinctly visible. No appre- 

 ciable difference could be detected in the plumage 

 of the parent birds — pale ash-grey on the under 

 surface of the body, inclining to greenish yellow 

 on the throat, beneath the tail, and near the 

 wings ; olive-green on the upper side of the 

 wings, and extending over the head to the fringe 

 of the beak ; dull flesh-colour on the legs ; dark 

 streaks, extending horizontally beyond the eye- 

 lids, and fringing the lower side of the wing ; 

 above the eye a sulphur-yellow line. 



The warbler, hunting for her fledglings' food, 

 happened to catch an unusually large ephem- 

 eral. With this in her bill, she approached 

 nearer and nearer to the nest, when a feeling of 

 insecurity suddenly overcame her. Turning in 

 the very act of alighting on the ground, she flew 

 back to the ash-tree above the watcher's head. 

 There she hopped lightly down from twig to 

 twig, determined to explore the shadowed recess 

 under the tree. Peering between the leaves, she 

 caught sight of a grey motionless object lying in 



