22 J. E. LITTLEBOT — THE BEEDS OF OTTR. DISTEICT. 



chemical laboratory, immediately over the evaporating pans, Avhere 

 the nest would, during the day, be constantly suri'ounded with steam 

 largely charged with vegetable fumes, among which I expect that 

 the Atropa Belladonna and Uxjoscyamus yiiger would bear a principal 

 part. The wheatcar I have never personally been able to identify 

 within the limits of our district, but it has been noticed by a careful 

 observer in the low meadows between Hunton Bridge and King's 

 Langley. The sedge warbler and the chifF-chaff are both migivatory, 

 the chifF-chafF being one of our earliest spring amvals. And how 

 welcome are these spring visitors as they crowd in upon us. ^ inter 

 with its cold winds and biting frosts is past and gone — a new world 

 opens before us — like the birds and the insects that surround us, we 

 feel its genial influence, and our hearts can hardly fail to join in the 

 chorus of universal praise that we listen to on every side. 



" The ants, the bees, the swallows reappear, 



Fresh leaves and flowers deck the dead season's bier ; 



The amorous birds now pair in every brake. 



And build their mossy homes in field and brere ; 



And the green lizard and the spotted snake, 



Like unimprisoned flames, out of their trance awake." 



The nest of the chiff-chaff is generally built about a foot from the 

 ground, and is very similar to the wren's. The reed warbler and 

 the garden warbler are by no means common, but these bii'ds, to- 

 gether with the whitethroats, the willow-wren, and the two species 

 last noticed, are so extremely difficult to distinguish, the one from 

 the other, that mistakes as to their identity are more than possible. 

 A nest of the reed warbler attached to three reeds, and only about 

 eighteen inches above the water, was taken last year at the Tring 

 Reservoir. The nests are elegantly biiilt of slender blades of grass, 

 interwoven with reed tops, dry duckweed, and the spongy substance 

 that abounds in many of the marsh ditches ; they are unusually 

 deep, and sway to and fro with the wind, occasionally almost 

 dipping into the water. The garden warbler has been observed at 

 King's Langley during the past season. Eespecting whitethroats, 

 I find that I have no memorandum, and I will simply state that the 

 lesser whitethroat is by far the more uncommon of the two. Kext 

 in rotation is the blackcap, and here we again have a noticeable 

 bird. He ranks high upon our list of songsters, is a splendid 

 mimic, and his note may occasionally be mistaken for that of the 

 nightingale ; he is extremely careful of his young, and, as far as we 

 know, he is the only small bird which, like the partridge, will feign 

 a broken wing or an injured leg, in order the better to decoy an 

 observer from his nest. The blackcap is excessively fond of rasp- 

 berries. As soon as the young birds can fly, they attack our 

 raspberry canes, almost in swarms. It is difficult to frighten 

 them away, and when endeavouring to do so I have fi^equently 

 W'atched them desert one clump only to besiege another. 



The gold-crest, or as it is more generally styled, the golden-crested 

 wren, is the smallest of our English birds, and I have seen it stated 

 that five of them will not exceed in weight one ounce. They are 



