20b' EGGS OF BKITISH BIRDS. 



THE WOOD WEEN. 



{Phylloscopus sibilatrix.)* 



Plate 53, Fig. 12. 



Though somewhat more local than its near allies, the Wood 

 Wren is by no means uncommon in England and Wales. To the 

 greater part of Europe it is a regular summer visitor. 



The nest, which is extremely difficult to find, is always on the 

 ground, concealed amongst the grass, heath or bilberry. It is 

 semi-domed, composed of dry grass, with sometimes a little moss 

 or a few leaves, and lined with horse-hair — not with feathers. 



The eggs vary in number from five to seven, and are pure 

 white in ground-colour, spotted and blotched with purplish-brown, 

 and with numerous shell-markings of violet-grey. Some eggs are 

 much more thickly marked than others ; in some the spots are 

 small ; in others they are confluent in places and form several 

 large pale blotches, thickly intermingled with smaller and darker 

 spots and streaks. They measure from 0'7 to 0'6 inch in length, 

 and from 0'59 to 0'53 inch in breadth. The peculiar character of 

 the Wood Warbler's eggs, as compared with the eggs of its 

 British congeners, consists in their average larger size, the more 

 numerous and richer brown markings, and the underlying spots 

 of violet-grey. 



THE WILLOW WHEN. 

 {Phylloscopus trochilus.) 



Plate 53, Figs. 5, 6. 



Of all the Willow Warblers the common Willow Wren, as it 

 is generally called, is the most abundant and the most widely 

 distributed. On the Continent it is equally common. 



The nest is almost always concealed amongst grass on the 

 ground, and is difficult to find. It is semi-domed, the rim which 

 forms the entrance being at an angle of about 45°. It is some- 

 what loosely constructed outside with dead grass, and sometimes 

 a little moss or a few dry leaves. Inside it is more carefully 

 finished, and is lined with fine roots, horse-hair, and lastly with a 

 profusion of feathers. 



* Phylloscopus sibilator — Sharpe, Handb., I., p. 205. 



