66 NATURAL HISTORY 
I make no doubt but there are three species of 
the WiLLow-wrens ;* two I know perfectly, but 
have not been able yet to procure the third. No 
two birds can differ more in their notes, and that 
constantly, than those two that 1 am acquainted 
with; for the one has a joyous, easy, laughing note, 
the other a harsh, loud chirp. The former is every 
way larger, and three quarters of an inch longer, 
and weighs two drachms and a half, while the latter 
weighs but two; so that the songster is one fifth 
heavier than the chirper. The chirper (being the 
first summer bird of passage that is heard, the wry- 
neck sometimes excepted) begins his two notes in 
* The smallest uncrested willow-wren, or chiffchaff, is the 
next early summer bird which we have remarked: it utters two 
sharp, piercing notes, so Joud in hollow woods as to occasion an 
echo, and is usually first heard about the 20th of March. 
+ These birds appear on the grassplots and walks: they walk 
a little as well as hop, and thrust their bills into the turf in quest, 
I conclude, of ants, which are their food. While they hold their 
bills in the grass, they draw out their prey with their tongues, 
which are so long as to be coiled round their heads —WuiTE, 
Observations on Birds. 
