WILLOW WAEBLEE. 119 



This bird frequents the hedges of meadows, especially those, 

 if there be any such now left, that have not been laid low 

 by the pruner's hook, and that both on hill and plain alike, 

 as also the borders of streams, the nurseries of the alder, the 

 hazel, the birch, and the withy, orchards, woods, brakes, 

 plantations, thickets, furze covers, gardens, brambles, bushes, 

 and trees, seeming to have a preference for osiers and willows, 

 and hence its name. It is pleasant indeed to watch it in 

 the autumn, when the greater numbers are to be seen, gliding 

 and shifting about among the branches of fruit trees and 

 bushes, now hopping here, now frisking there, as if seeming 

 to think that its diminutive size or conscious innocence was 

 a guarantee for its safe security from molestation or injury. 

 The female shews great attachment to her young, and though 

 taken off the nest, has been known to return to it on being 

 set at liberty. 



One of our earliest sylvan visitants, its arrival in this 

 country is generally the second week in April, but sometimes 

 so soon as the end of March, and its departure the second 

 week in September, or the beginning of October: Mr. Thompson, 

 of Belfast, has heard it sing on the 24th. of the former month, 

 as also so late as the 10th. of the latter. In Scotland it 

 does not arrive till the third or last week in September. 

 They would seem to come over in small flocks: the males 

 before the females. 



This species also is easily tamed and reconciled to captivity. 

 Mr. Hewitson mentions one which he captured at night, and 

 which in the morning shewed no wish to fly away, but 

 hopped about on the table, picking up the flies which he 

 placed for its breakfast. Another, taken from the nest and 

 placed in a cage, immediately began to eat the insects offered 

 to her. The Willow Wren is very lively, brisk, and vigorous 

 in all its habits and actions, moving and flitting from branch 

 to branch in search of its food; it is of a pugnacious 

 character, and even the young, when foraging for themselves 

 in the autumn, will drive away other birds that intrude upon 

 their neighbourhood. A curious instance is recorded in the 

 'Field Naturalist' by a lady, of a nest which she accidentally 

 disturbed and took up, being still proceeded with, and two 

 eggs laid, and though it was again disturbed and almost 

 ruined, and the eggs displaced by a flock of Ducks, on her 

 placing them in it again and restoring it to something like 

 its proper form, another egg was laid the same day, and four 



