The Wood- Warbler. 103 



The Wood- Warbler is the largest British species of its geniis, and has the 

 longest wings. The adult bird, which varies very slightly in colouring throughout 

 the year, has the upper surface yellowish-green, the rump and iipper tail-coverts 

 being most yellow in tint ; the wing-coverts olive-green with the margins of the 

 feathers paler ; the flights greyish-brown, externally edged with green and tipped 

 with whitish, the innermost secondaries with broader pale margins ; tail greyish- 

 brown, the outer webs greenish, and the inner webs pale greyish on the edges. 

 From the bill over the eye and beyond it is a broad sulphur-yellow superciliary 

 stripe. The under surface is pure white ; the chin, throat and breast suffused 

 with sulphur-yellow; the axillaries, under wing-coverts and thighs are also yellow. 

 Bill dark brown, the lower mandible paler at the base; feet brown; iris hazel. 



The young bird is slightly more yellow than adults; but the sexes are much 

 alike. 



The Wood- Wren is rarely with us until towards the end of April, and in 

 September it commences its winter migration ; in its habits it is not unlike its 

 congeners, but is more exclusively a bird of the forests and the larger woods, than 

 of copses and plantations. Lord Lilford, in his " Birds of Northamptonshire," 

 says : — ■" So far as my experience goes of the Wood- Wren, or Wood- Warbler (as 

 this bird is, I think, more generally called) it is fond of woods of high trees, 

 especially of beech, beneath which there is little or no undergrowth with the 

 exception of occasional tufts of coarse grass in the scattered spots not actually 

 overshadowed by the spreading branches of the trees. In these and similar 

 localities we occasionally hear, about the beginning of May, a very peculiar note, 

 which is described by White, of Selborne, as a ' sibilous grasshopper-like noise : ' 

 sibilous it certainly is, but I can perceive no resemblance in it to the cry of the 

 grasshopper. A good description will be found in the fourth edition of Yarrell ; 

 but even this fails to convey exactly the sound produced, though I certainly am 

 unable to improve upon it, and can only say that to my ear it has a certain 

 resemblance to the sound of the wings of wild ducks when flying overhead, 

 though, as stated by Yarrell, it begins slowly, and is more musical than any 

 sound produced by mere nuiscular action can well be. This song is accompanied 

 by a quivering of the wings, which are drooped during the performance." 



Mr. Blyth described the song as " Twit, twit, twit, tit, tit, tit, ti-ti-ti-i-i-i, begin- 

 ning slow, but gradually becoming quicker and quicker, until it dies away in a 

 kind of thrill ; " and Seebohm says : — "It might be expressed on paper thus — 

 chit, chit, chit, chit, chitr, tr-tr-tr-tr-lr-trc. The final trill somewhat resembles the note 

 of the Grasshopper Warbler or the lesser Redpole, or the prolonged ' shivering ' 

 part of the song of the Common Wren ; and during its utterance the wings and 



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