" The number of caterpillars, small moths, flies, and other insects consumed by the young 

 birds in the course of an hour is most astonishing." 



THE WILLOW WREN 



HE Willow Wren, or Willow 

 Warbler as it is also known, 

 is one of our most familiar 

 and sprightly feathered 

 visitors. Arriving in March 

 and April, it speedily makes 

 every suitable grove 

 throughout the land ring 

 with its sweet and oft-repeated melody. 

 To the ornithologist it is of peculiar 

 interest, for he always associates its 

 delicious warbling with the warm sun- 

 shine, bursting buds, and scent-laden 

 air that bespeak Nature doing and 

 donning her best to make the heart of 

 man rejoice within him. 



It is a bold and particularly restless 

 bird, especially when labouring under 

 any kind of anxiety produced by a real 

 or fancied danger near its nest, and 

 will in such circumstances hop from 

 twig to twig, and bough to bough, in 

 a most ceaseless and untiring manner. 



14 10; 



Curiously enough both the song and call 

 notes of this species bear considerable 

 similarity to those of the chaffinch, and 

 it requires a man with a well practised 

 ear to say with certainty which bird is 

 producing the plaintive t-wheet t-wheet 

 so often heard in our woods and groves 

 during May and June. 



The Willow Wren builds a dome- 

 shaped nest, with a somewhat large 

 entrance-hole in front. It is composed 

 of dead grass, moss and sometime^ 

 fern fronds, with an inner lining of hair 

 and feathers. As a rule it is placed on 

 the ground in a bank, or at the foot of 

 a hedgerow, but may occasionally be 

 found in a hole in an old wall or amongst 

 ivy growing six or seven feet from the 

 ground. The eggs, numbering from four 

 to seven, or even eight, are white in 

 colour spotted with pale rusty red. 

 They may easily be distinguished from 

 those of the chiffchaff, a closely allied 



