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PERCHING BIRDS 



Willow-Wren ^^^^ willow-wren, or willow-warbler, is a rather 

 (PhvlloseoDus smaller bird than the wood-wren, from which it 

 trochilus) ^^^y ^^ distinguished by its duller colouring (the 

 back being less green and the under -parts less 

 white), and the greater length of the small first primary quill. It is, 

 in fact, more like the chiff-chaff, although of rather larger dimensions, 

 and further distinguished by the circumstance that the outer margin of 

 the sixth primary quill is not scalloped, while the second feather of the 

 same series is intermediate in length between the fifth and sixth. The 

 colouring of the two species is very similar, but the tints are rather 

 brighter in the present bird, especially on the under-parts, which are 

 yellowish white, passing into sulphur-yellow on the flanks and wing- 

 coverts ; the eyebrow - stripe 

 being also of the latter colour. 

 Both sexes are alike in colour- 

 ing ; but }'oung birds in their 

 first plumage are duller than 

 their parents, although after 

 the autumnal moult they be- 

 come bright yellow below and 

 olive-brown above. 



This is one of the most 

 striking instances of the greater 

 brillianc}' of the young as com- 

 pared with adults distinctive of 

 warblers in general ; the reason 

 of this peculiarity has }^et to be explained. 



Despite its small size, the willow-wren covers a much greater area 

 during its migrations than the wood-wren, since it often wanders in 

 winter as far south as Cape Colony (in place of alwa\-s halting in 

 northern or western Africa), while in suminer it ranges northward to 

 the extremity of Scandinavia, and eastward to the Yenesei valley in 

 Siberia, where it ascends to the 70th parallel of latitude. Nevertheless, 

 some of these birds are less fond of travelling than their fellows, and 

 find the Sahara, or even, perhaps, southern Europe, a sufficientl}- long 

 journey. Like most of its kindred, the willow-wren arrives in the 

 British Isles in April, and remains till September It is to be found 

 all over the mainland of Great Britain and Ireland, although sparingly 

 distributed in the west of England and Wales ; but to the Orkneys 

 and Shetlands it is generally only a straggler, although it is recorded 

 to have nested in the latter group in 190 1. 



WIl.I.OW-WKEN. 



