378 PHYLLOPNEUSTETROCHILUS. 



let out, and in a few days it began to sing in its aviary. It 

 soon became so familiar, that it would take flies out of the 

 hand ; and when it was out in the room, if a fly was held to- 

 wards it, would fly up, and take it out of the hand." At length 

 it became so very fat, by eating bruised hemp-seed, bread, and 

 milk, that it cared little for any thing else. " The Willow 

 Wren,"" he continues, " seems to be more tender than the 

 Lesser Pettychaps, to which it is nearly related. When in 

 confinement, it is fond of creeping up to the other birds, for the 

 sake of their warmth, particularly at night ; and it will not 

 rest till it is very near to one, against which it squeezes itself 

 as close as possible." Dr Liverpool, in Wood's "■ British Song- 

 Birds," p. 134, also states that three or four in his aviary en- 

 tirely lost their natural shyness after they had been with him 

 for a month, and were the most amusing little pets he ever had. 



Young. — The young when fledged differ little in appearance 

 from the old birds in their newly completed plumage, having 

 the upper parts light greenish-brown, the quills and tail- 

 feathers edged with yellowish-green, the fore-neck yellow, and 

 the greater part of the breast and abdomen tinged with the 

 same. 



Remarks. — According to authors, this species is generally 

 distributed over the continent, from Italy to Sweden. It is 

 in a manner precisely intermediate in form between the Yel- 

 low Woodwren and the ChiiF-chaff", which latter however, 

 were characters derived from the form of the wing of essential 

 importance, ought to be referred to a distinct genus. The 

 males arrive before the females, and presently commence sing- 

 ing on the tops of the trees. On the 1st of May 1839, great 

 numbers were seen by me thus occupied along the Water of 

 Leith, from Currie to Slateford near Edinburgh, as well as in 

 the woods on the southern side of the Pentland Hills. 



