22 WILD LIFE OF SCOTLAND 



would "fill the winds of March with beauty." 

 He is said to be a rare bird in Scotland, but 

 I do not find him so ; and, it strikes me to suggest 

 that naturalists should add a little innocent bird 

 nesting to their other modes of observation, 

 such as watching, and listening. Or, if they 

 would only stoop to consult that most sensitive of 

 registers (which I hope, without much faith, is 

 becoming a thing of the past), the schoolboy's 

 string of eggs, they would find that the scarcity 

 is only apparent. In a little strip of young wood, 

 I can always rely on finding several nests. 



The chiff-chaff is the tiniest of a charming little 

 group of small warblers, familiarly known as 

 wrens, from their habit of building domed nests 

 on, or near the ground. The others are the wood- 

 wren, and the willow-wren. They are classed 

 as leaf searchers, because, though nesting on the 

 ground, they live, and feed in the trees. The 

 prevailing tint of their coat is green, so that, 

 when at work, no enemy can see them. In other 

 words, they are protectively coloured. 



If the chiff-chaff is supposed to be the rarest, 

 the willow- wren is, undoubtedly, the most numerous 

 of the warblers. Any strip of wood will yield 

 several ; and any single tree, not too far up the 



