SYLVIA SIBILATRIX. 315 



herbage. Amongst the feathers of this one were some long and 

 short horse-hairs. At the proper time the nests of all these 

 little herbage-haunters can be got by watching them with feathers 

 in their bill. I got one on July 1st, 1878, at Gilston, in a 

 variegated spruce fir, on the lawn, where there was no long 

 herbage. It was 5 feet 6 inches from the ground, and near the 

 edge of the branch ; loosely and clumsily constructed ; long and 

 straggling in form ; arched over — the entrance hole near the 

 bottom at the front. It was lavishly filled with feathers, and 

 had five very deep-sitten eggs. The bird allowed me to touch 

 the nest before she flew out, but when I returned, in about 

 half- an- hour, she slipped down and hid herself in the closest 

 shrub when I approached the tree. I unfortunately broke one 

 of the eggs when she was away — the young bird in it. I lay 

 and watched ; in five minutes she returned with her mate — they 

 both skipped about the tree ; she went close to the nest, but 

 seemed in no hurry to enter, for, as a fly caught her attention, 

 she left her eggs to catch the fly, and several others, quite at her 

 ease, before she resumed her incubation. I waited to see if she 

 would sit on the four eggs. Her loss of one was either 

 unnoticed or unheeded, for she remained in her nest, which 

 shows that birds do not desert when their eggs are handled or 

 some taken. The general colour of the bird is greenish-brown, 

 tinged with grey ; under parts pale yellow ; between the bill 

 and eyes, and over the eyes, are narrow yellow-white streaks ; 

 iris, brown. Length, to end of tail, 4^ inches, and 6 in extent 

 of wings. 



The Yellow Wood- Wren, or Wood- Warbler. 



(Sylvia Sylvicola.) Lath. (Sylvia Sibilatrix.) Bechst. 



Wi' chirps an' sangs an' mellow notes, 



And hum of busy bees, 

 It seems as if the leaves had throats, 



And fir-taps sang on trees. 



This bird is called the wood-wren, or wood-warbler, because 

 it frequents woods of large growth — free from brushwood — in 

 distinction to the willow wren and chiff-chaff, which are met 

 with in every strip of trees or tangled copse. It is rarer and 



