256 

 British Although outnumbered iu a few districts by other species, for 



Isles. 



example by the Wood Warbler in W. Merioneth and by the Chiffchaff 

 in W. Pembroke, the Willow AVarbler is by far the most numerous 

 and widely distributed member of its genus in the British Isles, and its 

 pleasant little descending song may be heard in the spring in almost 

 every part of the country up to the fringe of the moorlands. It has 

 even been met with in the hills as high as 1500 ft. It breeds on the 

 Isle of Man and on all the wooded islands of the Inner Hebrides, is 

 found locally in the Lews and has bred on Barra, while in 1901 it was 

 recorded as nesting in the Shetlands, and perhaps also breeds in the 

 Orkneys. In Ireland it has been recorded as breeding in every county. 

 ^°"' It inhabits almost the whole of the Continent, but is replaced in 



tineutal 



Europe. N. E. Russia (from the Petschora to Orenburg) by the Arctic form, 

 which apparently occurs also in Finmark. Towards the Mediterranean 

 it becomes scarcer, but breeds near Gibraltar, though rare in the plateau 

 of Central Spain, and apparently does not nest in the Balearic Isles or 

 Corsica, although a few breed in the mountains of Sardinia and Sicily, 

 while it is also absent in summer from the Balkan Peninsula, south of 

 Bosnia and Montenegro, and S. E. Russia. [It has not yet been proved 

 to breed in Marocco or Algeria, although suspected of having done so.] 

 Nest. The neatly domed nest, with opening at the side, is often placed 



in growing grass in a hedge bottom or bank side,, as a rule on the 

 ground. Occasionally however it may be found a foot or so from the 

 ground in seedling conifers, bushes or whins, and still more rarely at a 

 considerable height. Von Hugel found a nest 16 ft. from the ground 

 in a fir, and another 14 ft. high is recorded in the Birds of Lancashire, 

 Other occasional sites are in trellis or among ivy on a wall, in old nests 

 of other birds, such as Redbreast, Spotted Flycatcher, etc., among heather 

 on edge of moors, in a strawberry bed, etc. The nest is generally well 

 concealed, and often only found by the bird flying off when disturbed. 

 It is built of grasses and stalks, interwoven with green moss, occasionally 

 of dead bracken, lined with finer stalks and roots or a few horsehairs 

 and almost invariably a thick lining of feathers. I have however seen 

 two nests which undoubtedly belonged to this species and which did 

 not contain a single feather. The AVillow Wren is much attached to 

 its eggs, and has been known to continue to sit after the nest has been 

 removed bodily or partly destroyed. 

 Egg.. Usually 6 — -7 in number, sometimes 5 and rarely 8. Prof. Salter 



found a nest in Wales with 12 eggs (Zool. 1894, p. 345). Three very 

 distinct types are found. In the first the egg is covered with fine freckles 

 of light reddish brown: in the second the markings consist of blotches 

 of light chesnut; while in the third type, the egg is spotted rather 



