150 THE WOODLANDS. 



necessary to allude here. These are the Wood Wren, 1 

 the Willow Wren, 2 and the Chiff-chaff. 3 The last is the 

 least commonly seen in woods of the three. The chief 

 food of all of them consists of insects, of which they 

 destroy a large number, and yet short-sighted man 

 makes war upon all small birds, whilst they are his 

 greatest friends. The Wood Wren, or Wood Warbler, 

 has a " shrill, shaking sort of note, which may be 

 heard at a great distance, and cannot be confounded 

 with the song of any other bird." The song of the 

 Willow Wren is very soft and pleasing, consisting of 

 several plaintive notes in a descending scale. The 

 latter becomes very tame in confinement, and one 

 author states that a bird of this species became so 

 familiar that it would take flies out of his hand. 



Every one knows the Tits, all the family of the 

 Tits the Great Tit, the Blue Tit, the Long-tailed Tit, 

 the Cole Tit, the Marsh Tits, and all the little Tits. 

 They are the very mountebank of birds, head upwards, 

 head downwards, creeping over the branches, now on 

 one side, now on the other, twittering, and bobbing 

 around on all sides, ever restless in their search for 

 insects ; now and then pecking away at the young 

 buds, though not with mischievous intent, but because 

 they know that an insect is concealed within. It is 

 not the buds they eat, but the maggots which they 

 contain. Immense numbers of oak-galls are robbed 

 of their insects every year by these lively little Tits, 

 and yet they are persecuted, whilst they should be 



1 Sylvia sylvicola. 3 Sylvia hippolais. 



2 Sylvia trochulus. 



