OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. 



peating the shrill shivering cry which so peculiarly 

 distinguishes this species. When the hen was put off 

 the nest, she did not fly straight away, but merely 

 hopped into an adjoining bush, and remained flitting 

 about my head, uttering all the while a harsh sharp 

 chattering note ; which on one occasion was made 

 by the cock also, but it was quite distinct from the 

 usual call above-mentioned. Once, when I approach- 

 ed very near the nest, for the purpose of looking 

 into it, the hen bird alighted on a twig within a yard 

 of where I was standing, and uttered its harsh chirp, 

 shivering with its wings, as if in great alarm for the 

 fate of her dwelling. A day or two after incubation 

 had commenced, I found the nest gone ; which circum- 

 stance stopped further observation. The nest and 

 eggs of this species are figured, along with the bird 

 itself, by Latham, in the first Supplement to his 

 Synopsis of Birds.* The accompanying description 

 is very correct, and exactly accords with the nest and 

 eggs above noticed. It may be simply observed, that 

 the wool, which he mentions as one of the materials, 

 forms no great part of the nest, but is merely scat- 

 tered here and there in small patches, so as to keep 

 the whole together, which is of a very flimsy struc- 

 ture throughout. 



WOOD-WARBLER. f 



WHITE observes of this species, that it " haunts 

 only the tops of trees in high beechen woods ;" and 

 Mr. Selby remarks also, that " it frequents natural 



* P. 185, pi. 113. t Sylvia siUlatrix, Bechst. 



