ICTERIXE WARBLER. 383 



fancy a Robin to have had lessons from a Blackbird. Perhaps, on the 

 whole, the song of the Common Tree-Warbler comes nearest to that of the 

 Marsh- Warbler; but often it reminds you strongly of the song of the 

 Sedge-Warbler. At other times you may trace a fancied resemblance to the 

 chirping of the Sparrow, the scolding of the Whitethroat, or the scream of 

 the Swift, but all rattled off at such a rate one after the other, and repeated 

 so often, that it arrests the attention at once. I have heard it in widely 

 different localities, and very often; but in spite of its wonderful variety, I 

 think the song is original and can see no reason for supposing the bird to 

 be more of a mocking bird than the Song-Thrush or Nightingale. Some 

 writers have compared the song to that of the Nightingale ; but in 

 quality of voice, in the richness of its tones, and the melody of its notes it 

 is immeasurably inferior to that bird ; but because in England the Common 

 Tree-Warbler happens to be an occasional visitor, and such a very rare one, I 

 must confess that his song was ten times as attractive to me as that of the 

 Nightingale in the next plantation. But the best one can say of his voice 

 is that it is a very high soprano. If he were a common bird, one might say 

 he screamed, or even shrieked. His song does not fill the ear like that of 

 the Nightingale. 



The Common Tree-Warbler is essentially a lover of isolated trees. He 

 does not seem to care very much for the thick forest, but delights to sing 

 his song and build his nest in the trees in the gardens and the hedgerows. 

 Like the Robin, he seems to like to be close to the houses ; and, like that 

 bird, he has the reputation of being very quarrelsome and very jealous of 

 the approach of any other of his species on his special domain. His alarm- 

 note is a tek, tek, tek, often heard in an angry tone. 



In its habits this bird combines the actions of a Tit with those of a 

 Flycatcher, feeding for the most part on insects; but in autumn he 

 is said to vary his diet with ripe cherries and the fruit of the currant, 

 elder, &c. 



The nest of the Common Tree-Warbler is a very beautiful one, and is 

 generally built in the fork of a small tree eight or ten feet from the ground. 

 It is quite as handsome as that of the Chaffinch, but slightly smaller, more 

 slender, and deeper. It is composed of dry grass deftly interwoven with 

 moss, wool, spiders' webs, thistledown, strips of bark, and lichen, lined 

 with fine roots, grass-stalks, and horsehair. The eggs are four or five in 

 number, very rarely six. They are brownish pink in ground-colour, evenly 

 spotted and more rarely streaked with very dark purplish brown, which 

 occasionally approaches black. The underlying markings are very in- 

 distinct ; and some specimens are very finely streaked with lighter brown, 

 almost like*a Red- winged Starling's egg. Some eggs have the spots much 

 smaller and finer than others. They vary in length from '78 to '65 inch, and 

 in breadth from '6 to '5 inch. They approach very closely the eggs of the 



