32 Procerdbvjx. 



bits of loose wood aud dead leaves, and contained four eggs. 

 Tlie ground colour of the egg is white, and they are blotched 

 with purplish spots. 



On the edge of Gattou Wood are several likely Yew-trees. 

 Putting our hand into a hole in one of them, a snap and a 

 hiss from within caused an involuntary and rapid withdrawal. 

 On casting light into the hole a Great Tit was seeu, zealously 

 guarding her eight young, in a nest of wool, feathers and hair. 



Another Yew, at a height of about eight feet from the 

 ground, divides its main trunk into three branches. In the 

 hollow of the bowl between the branches was a neat little 

 nest of dry grass, lined with feathers. Six young Creepers 

 came fluttering out of it. Two, when caught and placed on 

 the tree, clung to the trunk with their claws, pressing against 

 it with their tails. 



On the bank below Wray Lane we found the nest of a 

 Wood Wren. Sharp eyes were needed to spy it out, so 

 slightly is the dome raised above the surrounding Ivy. At a 

 careless glance it looks like some stray wisp of dry grass, but 

 on looking closely we saw beneath the grassy dome the 

 entrance to the nest, and within were six eggs, spotted 

 thickly with deep, purple-red spots on a white ground. The 

 alarm-note of the old bird told as plainly as need be that the 

 nest was there and only required a careful search to find it. 

 Both bird and nest resemble its more abundant congeners, 

 the Willow Wren and Chiff-chaft", but the absence of feathers 

 in the lining of the nest identifies that of the Wood Wren, and 

 the closer, darker spots identify the eggs. The song of the 

 Wood Wren (I quote Harting's description of it) " has a 

 graduated strain of twelve or fourteen notes, begun high, and 

 finishing in demisemiquavers diminuendo. A peculiarity in 

 this song is that the first four or five notes are repeated 

 moderuto and staccato, while the remainder is hurried to the 

 end." Gilbert White's description of it is, "A little yellow 

 bird still continues to make a sibilous, shivering noise in the 

 top of tall woods." 



The most interesting plants on the wooded slope below 

 Wray Lane are the Wood Spurge and the White Helleborine. 



