WILLOW WOODWREN. 377 



to be imaginary, for both birds may be seen on the tops of tall 

 trees, in shrubs, and even among whins and brambles, and both 

 nestle on the ground. When the Willow Woodwren w^arbles, 

 it swells out its throat, and the efforts used in enunciating the 

 notes cause its body to vibrate in a small degree. This is pro- 

 bably the most common and most extensively distributed of all 

 our warblers, and its song affords a most pleasing contrast to 

 the discordant jingle of the Buntings, and the yelping of 

 Sparrows. 



INIr Hepburn has sent me the following notice regarding this 

 species as observed by him in the interior of Haddingtonshire. 

 " On the 9th of May 1838, I heard a great many AVillow 

 Wrens, Sylvia Trochilus, singing in a tall hedge-row, in a well- 

 sheltered glen, also a few in the plantation in which I observed 

 the Wood Wren. I saw none anywhere else until the 12tli, 

 when they were very generally distributed. The situations 

 which they most frequent are gardens, plantations, and hedges, 

 in the latter case giving the preference to those which have not 

 been subjected to pruning. Their song is very pleasing, con- 

 sisting of several plaintive notes on a regular descending scale. 

 During v^^indy weather we only hear a plaintive note resem- 

 bling iche-u-ee. The song of this species is heard till the mid- 

 dle or end of July. In autumn, great numbers may be seen 

 gliding amongst our fruit-trees and bushes. I do not think 

 they ever eat fruit, their sole object being to feed on the mul- 

 titudes of insects which resort thither. The young are fledged 

 about the beginning of July, and from this neighbourhood the 

 species takes its departure about the 8th or 10th of September. 

 The provincial name of both this and the Yellow Wren is 

 Willie Mufty." 



Sweet, in his account of " British Warblers," p. 17, observes 

 that " it is easily taken in a trap, baited with small caterpillars, 

 or a rose branch covered with Aphides ; and it will soon be- 

 come very tame in confinement. One that I caught in Sep- 

 tember was, in three days afterwards, let out of its aviary into 

 the room to catch the flies, which were numerous at that sea- 

 son. After amusing itself for some time in catching flies, it 

 began singing ; it did the same several other times when it was 



