I02 THE NESTS AND EGGS OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



although it docs not breed in the Orkneys and 

 Shetlands. 



Breeding habits : The haunts of the Willow Wren 

 embrace almost every kind of scenery, provided trees or 

 bushes form a part. The bird may be found breeding 

 near the moors, in the coppices and plantations of young 

 trees, or amongst the trees and bushes that fringe the 

 mountain stream. In better-cultivated districts it may 

 be met with amongst the fields and orchards and gar- 

 dens, in shrubberies, woods, and game coverts — in fact 

 wherever trees with a moderate amount of undergrowth 

 below them are to be found, the sweet song and plaintive 

 call-note of the Willow Wren may be heard. It is un- 

 doubtedly the most common of all the Warblers that 

 visit us in spring, arriving early in April. Whether it 

 pairs for life or not is difficult to say ; but I think the 

 same spots are visited yearly, although the birds do not 

 join into pairs for some time after their arrival. The 

 nest is usually made on the ground, among herbage on 

 a bank, and under the shelter of a bush or tuft of tall 

 grass by preference. Frequently it is made among 

 mowing grass, and very rarely it may be met with at 

 some distance from the ground, I once found a nest 

 some three feet from the ground, resting on a stone 

 jutting from an old wall, surrounded with ivy, and partly 

 supported by the stem of a hawthorn sapling. The 

 nest is semi-domed, but more open than that of the 

 Chifichaff, loosely put together, and made externally 

 of dry grass, scraps of moss, withered leaves, and roots, 

 and lined with horsehair, cowhair, and quantities of 

 feathers, I have counted two hundred feathers in the 

 lining of a single nest ! The parent birds are very wary 

 at the nest, but may generally be made to disclose its 

 whereabouts if sufificient patience is used. The bird is a 

 close sitter, and when flushed will flit restlessly about 



