CHIFF CHAFF 



LESSER PETTYCHAPS LEAST WILLOW WREN. 



PLATE CXXIX. 



Phylloscopus rufus, BECHSTEIN. 



Sylvia rufa, TEMMINCK. 



Motacilla hippolais, LINNAEUS. 



Sylvia hippolais, YARRELL. 



TH E nest of this extremely common migrant is arched over, 

 skilfully constructed of various indiscriminate materials, 

 according to the situation it is placed in, fern, moss, leaves, 

 grasses, bark, the shells of chrysalides, wool, and the down 

 of flowers, with abundance of feathers and a few hairs for 

 lining for the whole of the interior ; it is arched over more 

 than half-way ; if the roofing be removed, even three or 

 four times, the bird will often renew it. It is placed on 

 the ground, generally, but not always, in the immediate 

 neighbourhood of trees, or on a hedge bank, or near a brook, 

 or on the moss-clad stump of a tree, beneath the shelter of 

 the trailing boughs of some bramble, furze, or other bush, or 

 clod of earth. Mr. Henry Doubleday has found one at a 

 height of two feet from the ground, in some fern ; and Mr. 

 Hewitson mentions another, which was built in some ivy 

 against a garden wall, at a like elevation. Occasionally the 

 nest is placed in a row of peas, or a bed of ground-growing 

 wild plants. I have seen one on the top of a wall in 



