366 INSECTIVOILE. 



sists of two whistling chatters, the second delivered a little 

 more quickly than the first : but while it flits about in the 

 hedge, bush, or brake, seldom exposing itself to view, and 

 then only for a moment, it is not sparing of its voice ; and 

 on that account, it has got the appellation of " garrula" or 

 " chatterer." It is a summer bird of passage, inhabiting the 

 same places which the warblers inhabit, and having some of 

 the manners of the white-throat; but, if the name is to 

 be applied as a significant one, it cannot with very strict 

 propriety be called a warbler. 



Its nest is not very unlike that of the white-throat. It is 

 concealed in a hedge or thick bush, rarely in a tuft of annual 

 herbage, formed of vegetable fibres, loosely but not clumsily 

 put together, and lined with finer fibres, generally mixed 

 with wool or hair. The eggs, which are smaller than those 

 of the white-throat, do not exceed five, of a bluish colour, 

 and mottled with ash colour and pale brown. The materials 

 of nests and the colours of eggs are not, however, very 

 certain characters of birds. It is the food that brings birds 

 to particular localities, and they must build their nests of 

 materials which those localities furnish. The depth of tint 

 and the markings of eggs also vary considerably, not only in 

 the same species of birds, but in the same nest; and it 

 would seem that, in general, those that are last deposited, 

 and especially those of a second brood, are paler than the 

 first ones. 



THE WOOD WARBLER (Curruca sibilatrix). 



This bird has sometimes been called the wood-wren, but 

 with very little propriety, as it has not the expression or the 

 habits of the golden-crested or fiery-crested wrens, which 

 nestle as well as hunt in the woods, and inhabit them all the 

 year round. 



The wood warbler is one of the more beautiful of our sum- 



