150 WILLOW WARBLER. 



THE WILLOW WARBLER, SYLVIA TROCHI- 

 LUS, Selby. Willow Warbler or Willow Wren 

 of British authors. This pretty and active little 

 bird is the most abundant of our summer warb- 

 lers, enlivening every plantation or coppice, or 

 clump of brushwood, with its few lively note's. 

 It is one of our earliest sylvan visitants, and in 

 some of those warm April mornings, scented by 

 the opening birch, and bright with the first 

 fresh green of the larch, the associations are 

 completed when the cheerful song of this little 

 bird, for the first time in the season, meets the 

 ear. It is every wttere common, and frequents the 

 older woods as well as those of younger and 

 more humble growth. It stretches to the 

 extremity of the mainland of Scotland ; and in 

 some of the birchen woods which gird that 

 district, is the only warbler whose voice will 

 recall the existence of some climes less wild and 

 picturesque. In Ireland it seems very nearly as 

 equally distributed.* Like the last, it is ever in 

 motion, constantly repeating its lively but 

 limited song. The situation selected for the 

 nest is also similar, and is often only discovered 

 b}' the bird flying off from a too near approach, 

 which it does in a low flutter, almost like what is 

 performed by some of the rasorial or grallatorial 

 birds ; it does not fly far, but remains within a 

 few yards, uttering a plaintive call of distress. 

 The nest also is constructed of the same shape 

 * Mr Thompson. 



