6 BRITISH BIRDS' EGGS. 



THE DARTFORD WARBLER. Melizopkilvs provincial**. 



The furze commons and coverts of the southern parts of 

 England are the chief resort of this little bird. In the 

 north of England, as well as in Ireland and Scotland, it is 

 not found. We have seen this species in the neighbourhood 

 of Fordingbridge, on the border of the New Forest, but 

 have never seen its nest in its natural position, and are in- 

 formed that it is difficult to discover ; it is described as 

 placed among furze a little way from the ground, and com- 

 posed of dry stalks of vegetation with the tender dead 

 branches of furze, loosely put together, and lined with a few 

 dry stalks of some fine species of Carex. The eggs, four or 

 five in number, are greyish-green speckled over with olive- 

 brown. 



THE WOOD WARBLER, OR WOOD WREN. Sylvia silila- 

 trix. The Wood Wren builds its nest on the ground, by 

 the root of a tree or bush, or beneath some tuft of grass; it 

 is nearly round in form, with a small entrance in front, like 

 that of the Common Wren, but is a far less careful fabric, 

 and is composed of moss, withered leaves, and dried grass, 

 lined with hair or fine grass, not with feathers. This last 

 circumstance will serve to distinguish it from the nests of 

 the Chiff-chaff and Willow Warbler, both of which are of 



