60 BIRDS BROWN ABOVE AND WHITE BELOW. 



largely an insect-eater, the Wood- Wren, when feeding, 

 is generally to be seen examining the leaves at the 

 ends of the branches. 



WILLOW- WREN 5 inches; more slightly built; upper 

 parts olive ; under parts white, almost wholly of yellowish 

 cast ; eyebrow much fainter. Song, fourteen equally 

 timed notes, diminishing gradually both in pitch and 

 volume. 



CHIFF-CHAFF 4f inches ; dull olive above ; dull yellowish- 

 white below ; legs and feet blackish. Note, ' Chiff- 



REED-WARBLER. Form, like the Sedge- Warbler 

 (plate 28). Length, 5 inches. Head (flat-browed), 

 nape, and back ruddy-brown, nnstreaked ; wing and 

 tail feathers dark-brown, with lighter edgings ; faint 

 white eye-stripe ; under parts huffish-white. Summer 

 migrant. 



Eggs. 4-5, greenish- white, mottled with olive- 

 brown and ash-gray, and sparingly speckled with 

 dark brown ; -72 x -53 inch (plate 124). 



Nest. Very deep, of dry grass and moss, lined 

 with wool, hair, and feathers, and suspended between 

 reeds or the slender branches of willows and alders 

 at a height of a few feet or a few yards above the 

 ground or water. 



Distribution. Southern and midland counties of 

 England, rarer to the north and south-west ; Wales ; 

 not Scotland or Ireland. 



Unlike the Sedge-Warbler, which is generally dis- 

 tributed, the Reed- Warbler is a bird principally of 

 the southern and midland counties of England, rarer 



