THE HOME OF THE WILLOW-WREN 45 



theory and practice of fly-catching. Each twig 

 was examined so carefully that surely nob a fly 

 in the neighbourhood could escape the atten- 

 tion of the fragile midget. From bough to 

 bough, up to the highest leaf-bud of the hazels, 

 or down in the long grass — where among the 

 hawthorns the nut-brown wren gossiped and 

 chattered concerning her nest in the leaves by 

 the ivied trunk — or far out on the branch hang- 

 ing over the rill, the warbler searched for spoil ; 

 then with a faint rustle of rapid wings flew out 

 into the sunlight and caught a stray insect 

 that had been frightened from a leaf -bud as 

 the bird pecked sharply at a slender twig. 

 As he searched diligently among the hazels 

 and willows, the warbler, on the look-out for 

 caterpillars, peered on tiptoe into every fold of 

 the leaf-buds, or, if he thought of flies and 

 beetles, into every likely hiding-place between 

 the stamens of the catkins. The shapely little 

 head was cocked knowingly, now on one side and 

 now on the other, as though first the right eye 

 and then the left had a keenness denied to the 

 other. 



Occasionally, as if to vary his tiptoe curiosity 

 and his insatiable greed of flies, the willow- 

 warbler would pause for a moment to whisper 

 a carol of spring ; then, as if the thought 

 occurred that even somewhere on himself a fly 



