loo Thk Willow- Warbler. 



grey; bill brown, darkest on tlie culmen, palest below; feet greyish horn -brown, 

 iris hazel. The female nearly resembles the male. After the autumn moult the 

 colouring, especially in birds of the year, is so much more 3-ellow, that a neigh- 

 bour sent round to me in 1894, to inform me that one of my Canaries had got 

 loose and was flying about my garden. I was much tickled when I caught sight 

 of it, flitting about a privet hedge at the back of my covered aviary, catching 

 flies. The popular notion is that every j-ellow bird is a Cauar}'. 



The Willow- Wren (so-called) reaches the south of England about the end of 

 March, or the first week of April, leaving this couutr}' again about the middle of 

 September. Soon after its arrival and for about a month prior to its departure 

 it may be daily seen in most suburban gardens : I generally see it regularl}^ for 

 a week in April and during the latter part of July and beginning of August ; 

 but rarely, if ever, during the remainder of the year unless I go farther afield, 

 to furze-clad commons, copses, woods, plantations, or the more secluded parts of 

 large gardens. 



I know of no bird more graceful and active than the Willow- Wren; acrobatic 

 and confiding as a Coal-tit, yet with a more eas}- lighter flight and greater 

 control over itself when on the wing ; restless exceedinglj% but most beautiful in 

 all its agile movements, whether it be seen clinging to the upright bars of an 

 iron garden archway, to the feathery spray of some conifer, or flitting with rapid 

 undulating flight in pursuit of some small winged insect : even when, on rare 

 occasions, it drops to the earth in pursuit of some coveted morsel, its Robin-like 

 hop is in keeping with its neat trim figure. 



The song of the Willow- Warbler is somewhat shrill, but decidedly pleasing ; 

 it vaguely reminds one of that of the Chaffinch, but the scale is irregular, being 

 more staccato; though far less melodious it also bears a slight resemblance to the 

 song of the common Amaduvade Waxbill ; but differs, as a descending zigzag does 

 from a descending spiral, the notes sounding as if flung right and left. 



The nest is frequently placed amongst grass on the ground, or in branches 

 close to the ground, and almost hidden by grass and nettles; sometimes, however, 

 it is found some feet above the ground, one which I took on the i6th June, 1881, 

 was built over two feet above the earth in a wild rose-bush in a large garden at 

 Tunstall, in Kent; also in the "Zoologist," for 1878, Mr. E. P. P. Butterfield 

 states that in 1876 he observed a nest built between two rocks at a distance of 

 three feet, and another in 1878 in a clump of whins two feet from the ground ; 

 but probably the greatest recorded altitude is that mentioned by Mr. Alston, 

 when the nest was built in a hole in a wall nearly seven feet from the ground. 



The nest in form is usually cave-shaped or semi-domed, the thickest portion 



