101 



CHDT CHAFF. 



LESSER PETTYCHAPS. LEAST WILLOW WREN. 



PLATE CXXIX. 



Sylvia rufa, TEMMINCK. 



MotaciUa Jiippoteis, MoKTAGU. 



SyJria fiippotois, LATHAM. JEtrras. SELBT. 



THE nest, which is arched over, is skilfully constructed of various 

 indiscriminate materials, according to the situation it is placed in, fern, 

 moss, leaves, grasses, the bark of the birch tree, the shells of chrysalides, 

 wool, and the down of flowers, with sometimes feathers and a few hairs 

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

 half-way, the other portion of the upper half being left open by the 

 side; if the roofing be removed, even three or four times, the patient 

 little architect will 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. 



The eggs, usually seven in number, are more than ordinarily rounded 

 at the larger end, and pointed at the smaller. They are hatched in 

 thirteen days: they do not vary much, and are of a white ground colour, 

 with very small dots and spots of blackish red or purple brown, chiefly 

 at the thicker end, which they sometimes surround in the way of a zone 

 or belt. Mr. Neville Wood saw a nest which contained five eggs of 



