WARBLERS. 129 



more closely the syllables "cheep, cheep," than the "cliiff, chaff" usually 

 attributed to it, as it is sharp and shrill. When alarmed its cry is 

 quite different, and is best represented, according to Meyer, by the 

 word "hoo-id." The song, which is either delivered from the top of a 

 lofty tree, or while the little creature is on the wing, is sweet, melo- 

 dious, and varied. 



The nest is arched over, and has the aperture near the top; it very 

 much resembles that of the Willow Warbler, but is not so neatly con- 

 structed. The materials vary according to the situation in which it is 

 placed grasses, leaves, fern, and moss, intermingled with the bark of 

 the birch tree, wool, the down of flowers, and the shells of chrysalides, 

 with feathers or hairs for the interior lining. It is generally placed on 

 the ground among brambles, furze, or other bushes, but sometimes 

 raised a little among the branches, or in the moss-clad stump of a tree. 

 Mr. Henry Doubleday found one at a height of two feet in a dead fern, 

 and Mr. Hcwitson mentions another which was built in some ivy against 

 a wall, at an equal elevation. From five to seven eggs are laid towards 

 the middle or end of May, and hatched in about thirteen days, they 

 are particularly large at one end, and small and pointed at the other, 

 of a white ground colour, and spotted sparingly with blackish red or 

 purple brown. Two broods are reared in a season. The young when 

 fledged very nearly resemble the adults, but the yellow and green tints 

 are a little brighter, and the bill, legs, and feet of a paler brown. 



Sweet says these birds render much service to man in devouring the 

 caterpillars of the different species of Tortrix, that are rolled up in the 

 unfolding buds of various trees, and would otherwise destroy a great 

 part of the fruit. They feed also on aphides, flies, and moths. 



The scientific name, liippolais, means a Hedge Sparrow, and has been 

 applied to this bird by British ornithologists, while continental authors 

 term it Sylvia rufa. 



THE DARTFOED WARBLER, 



(Sylvia provincialis?) 



PLATE VIII. FIGURE IV. 



THIS bird, also called the Provence Furzeling and the Furze Wren, 

 is not uncommon on the European continent in Spain, Italy, and the 

 south of France. The first specimens found in this country were obtained 



s 



