THE FAERY YEAR 



his distinct courting note, a speaking and emphatic 

 " tee, tee, tee, tee, tee," uttered more often now, I 

 fancy, than on his arrival last month. But the 

 singer is very charming to watch. It is the wing 

 accompaniment that I find so delightful. The 

 song-flutters of the wood pipit and of the wood 

 warbler seem full of emotion ; they make amends 

 for indifferent melody. 



The wood warbler opens with a repeated 

 monosyllable resembling " it " or " tit," and, 

 quickening up and loudening, breaks into a 

 strong shivering passage impossible to describe 

 with verisimilitude. At the end of the shiver, 

 back goes his head, giving us the impression that 

 the bird is putting his whole soul into this 

 passage, the grand finale. It is much the same 

 with a willow wren in earnest. Distended throat, 

 wings trembling with the energy, mark the end. 

 Often the wood warbler, starting his song on a 

 twig, will run out into the air, and flutter and sing 

 his way to a neighbouring twig. Most of the 

 wood warbler's food is taken in the oak or fir 

 branches through which the bird slips in rather 

 a leisurely way, but now and then he will drop 

 from his branch, when a sharp little click tells the 

 watcher that he has caught an insect in the air. 

 The female birds are now sitting closely. But, 

 earlier in the season, a dainty sight is that of a 

 pair of wood warblers trifling and toying in the 

 air. That the custom of kissing, against which 

 medical men inveigh, is peculiar to human beings, 



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