TOO BRITISH BIRDS. WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 



Palestine in winter and on migration ; but it passes the winter chiefly in Africa 

 from the Nile south-westwards as far as the Cape, and south-eastwards to the 

 Transvaal and Natal. A few, however, winter in the South of France and Spain, 

 and a few pass the summer in N.W. Africa. 



In Great Britain the Willow- Warbler is pretty generally distributed and 

 abundant, though in Cornwall, Wales and Ireland only locally common ; to the 

 Orkneys, Shetlands and Faeroes it is apparently a mere straggler. 



This species is a much brighter and prettier bird than the Chiffchaff : in 

 spring it is olive- green above with the rump yellower ; the wing- coverts are olive- 

 brownish, with greener margins, the flights brown with narrow whitish tips ; and 

 yellowish outer webs ; tail feathers brown, with whitish inner and yellowish outer 

 edges ; a superciliary yellowish streak from the bill over the eye and ear-coverts : 

 under parts yellowish, the chin, centre of throat, abdomen and under tail-coverts 

 white ; the breast and flanks olivaceous yellow or olivaceous buff ; the axillaries, 

 under wing-coverts and thighs yellow ; flights and tail below ashy-grey : bill brown, 

 darkest on the culmen, palest below ; feet greyish horn-brown, iris hazel. The 

 female nearly resembles the male. After the autumn moult the colouring, especially 

 in birds of the year, is so much more yellow, that a neighbour sent round to me 

 in 1894, to inform me that one of my Canaries had got loose and was flying about 

 my garden. I was much tickled when I caught sight of it, flitting about a privet 

 hedge at the back of my covered aviary, catching flies. The popular notion is 

 that every yellow bird is a Canary. 



The Willow- Wren (so-called) reaches the south of England about the end of 

 March, or the first week of April, leaving this covmtry again about the middle of 

 September. Soon after its arrival and for about a month prior to its departure it 

 may be daily seen in most suburban gardens : I generally see it regularly for a 

 week in April and during the latter part of July and beginning of August ; but 

 rarely, if ever, during the remainder of the year unless I go farther afield, to furze- 

 clad commons, copses, woods, plantations, or the more secluded parts of large 

 gardens. 



I know of no bird more graceful and active than the Willow- Wren ; acrobatic 

 and confiding as a Coal-tit, yet with a more easy lighter flight and greater control 

 over itself when on the wing ; restless exceedingly, but most beautiful in all its 

 agile movements, whether it be seen clinging to the upright bars of an iron garden 

 archway, to the feathery spray of some conifer, or flitting with rapid undulating 

 flight in pursuit of some small winged insect : even when, on rare occasions, it 

 drops to the earth in pursuit of some coveted morsel, its Robin-like hop is in 

 keeping with its neat trim figure. 



