74 THE WOOD WEEN. 



and also its occurrence there on the 24:th of April 1874.^ 

 In the middle of May of the latter year, one was observed by 

 me at Wedderburn Castle, near Duns. This Warbler was 

 not noticed at Paxton until the 18th of May 1879, when 

 Mr. George Bolam drew my attention to it singing on a 

 tree near the gamekeeper's house. Dr. Stuart saw it at 

 Chirnside Bridge, on the 26th of April 1881, and a little 

 later at Edrom, Harelawside, and Blackburnrig Wood.^ On 

 the 30th of May 1883, its song was heard amongst the trees 

 at Stainrig, on the occasion of the meeting of the Berwick- 

 shire Naturalists' Club in that neighbourhood.^ Mr. W. 

 Evans, Edinburgh, wrote to me on the 18th of December 

 1886, that on the 7th of June of that year, he had found 

 the Wood Wren at Ninewells, and Langton, and abundantly 

 in the Pistol Plantation. On the 17th of May 1887, while 

 driving to Abbey St. Bathans, I heard its song con- 

 stantly repeated in the woods by the side of the public 

 road near Burnhouses, and at Oatleycleugh. The food of 

 this bird consists of insects and their larvae, which it obtains 

 among the leaves of trees. 



The nest, which is placed on the ground in woods, under 

 a tuft of grass or amongst herbage, is domed, and composed 

 of moss, dried grass, and dead leaves, lined with fine grass 

 and hair. It differs from that of the Willow Wren or the 

 Chiffchaff, by never being lined with feathers. The eggs, 

 which are six or seven in number, are white, thickly covered 

 all over with small spots of dark reddish brown. 



The Wood Wren may be distinguished from the Willow 

 Wren and the Chiffchaff by the broad streak of bright 

 sulphur yellow over its eyes, and the pure green of the upper 

 part of its body. It leaves us in August and September 

 for its southern winter quarters. 



Hist. Ber. Nat. Club, vol. vii. p. 280. 

 2 Ibid. vol. ix. pp. 559, 660. ^ /^tcJ. vol. x. p. 251. 



