34 IN A CHESHIRE GARDEN 



walked over, about as unprotected position 

 as you could wish, and yet the young were 

 successfully reared. I have seen a willow- 

 wren attack and drive away a perfectly 

 inoffensive marsh-tit that happened to alight 

 near it on the grass. 



The wood-wren, with its " sibilous shiver- 

 ing note," I have heard at Budworth, a few 

 miles away, but never in this garden or 

 immediate neighbourhood. 



The garden-warbler, too, is quite a stranger, 

 and I have never recognised it in these parts 

 at all. In May, 190x3, I saw and heard one 

 for several days in a garden in North Wales, 

 where it is generally supposed to be unknown. 



Sedge-warblers sing incessantly when first 

 they come, but after they have been here for 

 a little while are much less frequently heard. 

 They usually are hidden in the depths of a 

 bush when singing, but I have seen one 

 pouring out its impetuous song mounted on 

 a telephone wire in the open, 20 feet from 

 the ground, and another that sang as it was 

 flying. For several years a sedge-warbler 

 has begun to sing again here in July, not 

 having been heard for some weeks previously. 

 In 1907, for example, from July 24th to 

 August 2nd, he could, without much exag- 

 geration, be said to have sung all day and 

 all night. I heard him at seven in the 

 morning when I got up and at twelve at night 

 when I went to bed, and I have a note of 



