CATALOGUE OF BIRDS. 1 39 



over England, Wales, and Ireland, also Scodand, 

 with the exception of the extreme north and the 

 Hebrides. This little bird is no mean singer, 

 though, of course, it cannot in any way be said to 

 compare with the Nightingale. To me, however, 

 the song is very pleasing — a babble of notes, very 

 liquid in quality, and uttered in short snatches, 

 finishing off very abruptly, and resumed again almost 

 immediately. 



Mr. W. H. Hudson says about this bird : " It 

 inhabits the wood-side, the thickets, the rough com- 

 mon, but, of all places, prefers the thick hedge for 

 a home. Shortly after the bird's arrival, about the 

 middle or near the end of April, he quickly makes his 

 presence known to any person who walks along a 

 hedge side. The intruder is received with a startled 

 grating note — a sound expressive of surprise and 

 displeasure — and repeating this sound from time to 

 time the bird flits on before him concealed from 

 sight by the dense tangle he moves amidst ; pre- 

 sently, if not too much alarmed, he mounts to a 

 twig to the summit of the hedge to pour out his 

 song — a torrent of notes uttered apparently in great 

 excitement — with crest raised, the throat puffed out, 

 and many odd gestures and motions. Sometimes 

 he springs from his perch as if lifted by sheer 

 rapture into the air, and ascends singing in a spiral, 

 then drops swiftly back to his perch again." 



The materials of the nest are grass stems, with a 

 lining of bents and horsehair, generally placed two 

 or three feet from the crround in the tanole of thickset 



