WILLOW WOODWREN. 375 



mellow, and most pleasing song, which consists of a repetition 

 of the syllable ticee, ten or more times, the first notes pro- 

 longed, the rest gradually falling and becoming shorter. 



About a fortnight or three weeks after their arrival, they 

 begin to form their nest, which is placed on the ground, among 

 the herbage, on a dry bank, under a hedge, or beneath a bush ; 

 and is generally very bulky, and of a roundish form externally, 

 with the aperture near the top. It is composed of moss and 

 sometimes a few withered leaves ; then of blades and stalks of 

 fine grass, with long fibrous roots, and a good deal of hair ; 

 the internal layer consisting of feathers. Like the nest of the 

 Common Wren, it varies in form and texture, but is always 

 lined with feathers, in which respect it differs from that of 

 the Yellow Woodwren, and agrees with that of the Chiff-chafF. 

 Properly speaking, the nest is of the ordinary hemispherical 

 form, with an arch or dome of a looser texture. One which 

 I obtained on the 7th of July 1837, contained four eggs, and 

 the parent bird was caught in the act of incubating, and slain, 

 contrary to good feeling, by a boy hired to disclose his dis- 

 covery of what he termed " a Whitie's nest." The descrip- 

 tion which I took at the time is as follows. " In the first 

 place it is very large for the size of the bird, its external trans- 

 verse diameter being just five inches, the inner two and a half 

 inches. The top being removed, its cavity is hemispheri- 

 cal, but its external form is a little flattened, the walls being 

 thicker at the sides. The exterior is composed of hypna and 

 a few stalks and blades of grass ; then a thick layer of fine 

 stems, blades, and roots of grass, with a little moss intermix- 

 ed ; then a thin layer of long, undulated fibrous roots ; then 

 a lining, neatly woven, of hair of different colours, black, 

 white, grey, and brown, and of different qualities, some be- 

 ing horse hair, others fine, together with a little wool ; and, 

 lastly, a very comfortable bedding of feathers, among which 

 I can distinguish some of the Wood Pigeon and Blackbird. 

 The dome is merely a continuation of the outer layers, not 

 being lined with hair or feathers. The eggs are of a regular 

 oval form, seven and a half twelfths long, five and a half twelfths 

 broad, reddish-white, marked all over with irregularly dispers- 



