80 THE BIRDS OF SHERWOOD FOREST. 



while quietly seated on the bench below, and hidden 

 from its sight by the broad leaves of the nut-trees, I 

 have watched it through the interstices of the foliage 

 with great interest. Here I heard to advantage the 

 low inward warbling, which is not noticed without being 

 close to it, but which is very sweet. This would be 

 interrupted, or rather ended, by the loud, shrill, well- 

 known notes which Bechstein describes by the words 

 <: Klap, klap ;" while at intervals it would utter several 

 times in succession a hissing kind of note resembling the 

 word " tzee/' repeated three times. Sometimes the nest 

 would be placed well hidden in a currant-tree fence close 

 by, and sometimes in a thick privet hedge which shut 

 in my garden from the stream flowing past it. I never 

 could perceive any difference between the male and the 

 female, though I believe the latter is generally described 

 as somewhat paler in colour. 



The Wood Wren (S. sylvicola), or, as it is better 

 known with us by the name of the " yellow willow 

 wren," regularly visits us, but I have only occasionally 

 succeeded in finding the nest, which has always been 

 placed on^the^ground, and well concealed~with withered 

 leaves. The eggs are rather larger than those of S. tro- 

 chilus, and differ so greatly in the colour that they 

 cannot be mistaken. The ground is pure white, dis- 

 tinctly but closely freckled with dark brownish purple ; 

 in some there are spots of a light purple underlying the 

 others, but not easily seen except on close inspection. 

 Some have the spots very thickly distributed, giving 

 quite a darker tone to them, and being still more closely 

 accumulated at the larger end. Others are thinly 

 marked, while I have seen one in which the spots were 

 arranged in a somewhat indistinct zone. The bird itself 



