86 ENGLISH BIRD LIFE 



wood itself. On a slight declivity bounding a path 

 through an old plantation, along which many 

 passengers took their way daily, I have found 

 several Willow Wrens nesting at short distances in 

 situations which rendered them liable to be dis- 

 turbed by every passing dog, whilst many appar- 

 ently favourable localities within the plantation itself 

 were tenantless. It w^ould seem, as in the cases of 

 the Sparrow, the House Martin and the Rook, that 

 these little warblers instinctively seek the proximity 

 of man, and so willingly sacrifice the security of a 

 deeper seclusion. The Wood Wren, on the other 

 hand, claims no kinship with humanity. It spends 

 its summer life in the summit of the loftiest trees 

 where the sounds of a work-a-day world can reach it 

 but faintly, and its little brood is reared upon some 

 remote bank amidst the wood-tangle and the blue- 

 bells, where footsteps, other than those of the rabbit 

 or the pheasant, rarely come. 



If it were not for its distinctive note the Wood 

 Wren might easily be overlooked even in places 

 where it occurs most commonly. The Garden 

 Warbler and the Blackcap, reticent as they may be, 

 come at times into the open, and may be seen upon 

 the ground or upon some low exposed bough of the 

 apple-tree. The Wood Wren is rarely so seen. It 

 is when wandering in the older w^oods or in the 

 avenues where the mighty beeches and elms, stand- 

 ing far apart, tower to the sky and intermingle their 

 green branches across the way, that the first intima- 

 tion of its presence reaches us. 



From the loftiest summits the cry comes — " chit, 

 chit, chit, chit, chitr, tr, tr, tr, tr, tre," now pausing 



