io 4 ANNALS OF BIRD LIFE. 



dulcet Blackcaps, shy Garden Warblers, and 

 Sedge Birds ; and, where the bushes and brambles 

 are thickest, the skulking Grasshopper Warbler 

 builds its nest, and chants its monotonous song 

 at all hours of the day and night. This latter 

 species is most interesting ; no other British bird 

 is more shy and retiring. You may hunt it up 

 and down the cover, through thicket after thicket, 

 along the hedge bottoms, and the tangled, matted 

 grass and briars, without ever once getting a 

 glimpse of it ; all the time its sibilant music 

 betraying its constantly changing whereabouts. 

 AH laying Common Buntings and Willow Wrens, Green- 

 & e !7th e june! finches, and Swallows, Martins, and House 

 Sparrows are all now deeply engaged in family 

 duties. Now is the time to search for the charm- 

 ing little nest of the Lesser Redpole, snugly 

 placed in a crotch of the hedgerows, or in the 

 branches of the young larch trees in the planta- 

 v d e po lgg S) tions. It is a cosy, yet a tiny home indeed, made 

 of moss and dry grass, bound together with a few 

 roots and twigs, and warmly lined with feathers 

 and down from the willow- tree and other plants. 

 The eggs are equally beautiful greenish-blue in 

 ground colour, spotted with purplish - red, and 

 sometimes streaked with darker brown. 



During the early weeks of summer, vast 

 numbers of young birds leave their nests to make 

 their first appearance among the trees and bushes. 

 Many of these are second broods. By the end of 

 June the young Pied Wagtails are strong on the 



