102 THE RIVER-SIDE NATURALIST. 



white hence the name. Its manners differ also from the 

 willow-warbler, often letting you know of its presence by 

 the curious alarm-note, Chzh-chzh; and you may see him 

 on the topmost twig of a bramble or the upper part of 

 the flowering stem of the meadow-sweet, with head-feathers 

 erected into a crest, his throat full and quivering with ex- 

 citement, whilst he pours out a rather sweet but short 

 song. Bloomfield says : 



"The sporting white-throat, on some twig's end borne, 

 Pour'd hymns to freedom and the rising morn." 



Seebohm says : " In the early summer he is so full of 

 music that sometimes, as he flies from hedge to hedge, he 

 will soar up into the air above his line of flight and pour 

 out his song like a pipit or lark. The bird is a fruit as 

 well as an insect eater. Very fond of daddy-longlegs, as 

 well as of currants and raspberries." 



It has many provincial names. In some parts of 

 Scotland it goes by the name of Blethering Tarn. In Eng- 

 land it is the Nettle- Creeper, Haytit, Billy Whitethroat, 

 Great Peggy, &c., &c. Swainson says that "the name 

 of Singing Sky-Rocket has been applied to it from its 

 habit of rising quickly from time to time straight up in the 

 air, singing all the time." In France it is called Babil- 

 larde. 



THE WREN. 



The WREN (Troglodytes parvulus), the little bird that 

 lives in a hole family, Troglodytes is one of the most 

 familiar of our bird companions. It matters not where 

 you may be, whether by the river- side or on the garden- 

 seat, if you remain on one spot for a very short time a wren 

 will be sure to come and have a look at you. Many and 

 many a time, when we have been "far from the madding 

 crowd," in most out-of-the-way places, sitting quietly down 

 either to rest, to sketch, or to change our flies, our atten- 

 tion would be drawn to something moving among the 

 bushes a little brown object would appear and as quickly 



