166 AMONGST THE WOODLAND BIRDS— 
(Part I, pp. Io1-2), with a hole at one side 
for entrance, as they have. It was alongside 
the road, but so well hidden that only a 
practised eye would have detected it, and 
many people and vehicles must have passed 
close to it. There was a heap of decaying 
straw near by, from which the birds had 
taken the material to build their nest. The 
male kept near us during our investigations, 
plaintively chirping the while. The interior 
of the nest was well lined with feathers to 
hold seven small eggs of a pure white ground 
colour, with spots and blotches of a reddish- 
brown. The shells were very thin and brittle. 
The willow wren is much like a sedge- or 
reed-warbler in shape, and indeed willow- 
warbley is another name for it, but the tint is 
a palish olive green in the upper parts and 
yellowish-white underneath, and the bird has 
a narrow streak of yellow near the eye. This 
colouring of the plumage, the build of the 
nest and its position, together with the colour 
of the small eggs, at once distinguish this 
bird from the warblers, The bird is one of 
