152 



PERCHING BIEDS. 

 CHAPTER V. 



THE TETTE WAEBLEES. The Two most common of these 

 birds, the Sedge Warbler, and the Reed Warbler THE 

 SYLVAN WABBLEES The Redstart The Common White- 

 throat Anecdote of the Whitethroat and the Nightingale 

 The Blackcap Warbler Beauty of its song The tame 

 Blackcap The Greater Pettychaps, or Garden Warbler 

 The Lesser Pettychaps, or Chiffchaff The smallest of its 

 kind The tame Chiffchaff The Wood Warbler, and the 

 Willow-Warbler. 



OF those interesting little birds the TRUE WARBLERS 

 there are several species, more or less common. 

 They are different in appearance, according to 

 the haunts in which they are found, but there 

 seems a .general likeness among them. They are 

 delicate in form and plumage ; and subdued rather 

 than strongly marked in colouring. Their whole 

 expression is soft, but not dull ; and their manners, 

 though gentle, are rather sprightly. Though they 

 are not all song-birds, they comprise the finest of 

 our songsters, and their notes run more on the 

 minor keys than those of any other birds. 



All the warblers love shade and shelter; some 

 in the grove, others in the coppice ;* and some by 

 the reedy pool. But they are less found in the 

 wide waste of the forest. They are summer so- 



