THE BIRD-LIFE OF LONDON 
descending scale, finishing so softly as to be scarcely audible. 
It makes itself as equally at home in a large garden or 
orchard as amongst the hedgerows and coppices and shrub- 
beries of more rural spots. It is a most persistent singer 
too, and throughout April and May makes its haunts melo- 
dious as one bird answers another from the leafy bowers. Its 
call-note is equally pleasing—a plaintive weet, long-drawn 
and musical, and uttered most pertinaciously when you 
are near the nest. ‘The males continue in song until the 
summer, ceasing in July and August, during the moult, 
and regaining it after that event, unlike any other of their 
kindred. ‘The food of this species is largely composed of 
insects and larve, but small fruit and soft berries are 
eagerly sought as soon as ripe. ‘The Willow Warbler 
pairs soon after its arrival,and eggs may be found from 
the end of April onwards to June. ‘The nest is mostly 
made upon the ground, amongst sheltering herbage, but 
in exceptional cases it is placed at some distance above it. 
It is semi-domed, and made of dry grass, bits of moss, 
withered leaves, and roots, and lined with hair and large 
quantities of feathers. ‘The five, six, or seven eggs are 
white (sometimes with a yellowish tinge), blotched, 
spotted, and freckled with pale brownish red. Parties 
of Willow Warblers are not unfrequently met with in 
the London area in autumn, on passage, and many seen 
here at that season and in spring are merely ,migrating 
over the city. 
The adult Willow Warbler has the upper parts olive- 
green, brightest on the rump ; the paler eye-stripe is very 
ill-defined ; the wings and tail are brown, with paler 
margins. ‘The under parts are yellowish white, suffused 
with buff on the breast and flanks; the under surface 
of the wings and the metatarsi are yellow. Bull dark 
brown, paler below ; tarsi and toes brown ; irides brown. 
Length 4? inches. ‘The young are browner above and 
yellower below than their parents. 
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