n8 RURAL BIRD LIFE. 



The Chiffchaff does not confine itself to the ground 

 alone for a nesting-site, and we not unfrequently find 

 its home some two or three feet from it. Unlike its 

 congener, the Wood Wren, the little Chiffchaff makes 

 a substantial nest, and its young require a bed of 

 softest feathers. The eggs are four or five in number, 

 and differ from those of the Willow Warbler by being 

 slightly smaller, rather more pointed, and the markings 

 of a deeper and richer red, very often forming a zone 

 round the larger end. When the young no longer need 

 their parents' aid the union between the parents ceases 

 its mysterious power, and old and young alike separate, 

 probably for ever. They leave us somewhere about the 

 time the Willow Warblers take their departure for the 

 south, which is seldom much later than the autumnal 

 equinox. 



The Sedge Warbler is another songster that regularly 

 visits us every spring. He is a lover of marshy places, 

 and delights to find seclusion amongst the dense under- 

 wood skirting the banks of pools and streams. Amongst 

 the ever murmuring reeds and sedges also he finds a 

 fitting haunt, and his rich and varied song is often heard 

 trilling forth from their verdant fastnesses. He is a 

 bird whose only aim appears to be the shunning of man's 

 approaches, and it is very often indeed only by his 

 notes that we know he is at hand. You sometimes hear 

 him singing so loudly as to appear as if he were but a 

 few inches away, and it is only by the most diligent 

 search that you succeed in finding him, so still and 

 motionless does he keep, and so unassuming is his 

 plumage. 



The Sedge Warbler is often mistaken for the Nightin- 

 gale, partly on account of his song, and partly because 

 he ofttimes warbles in the hours of night. But to those 

 who have been fortunate enough to hear the lovely 



