NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 39 



the young bird, may be eluded. The eggs are short and round ; of a 

 dirty white, spotted with dark bloody blotches. Though I might 

 not be able, just when T pleased, to procure you a bird, yet I could 

 show you them almost any day ; and any evening you may hear them 

 round the village, for they make a clamour which may be heard a mile. 

 Oedicnemus is a most apt and expressive name for them, since their 

 legs seem swoln like those of a gouty man. After harvest I have shot 

 them before the pointers in turnip-fields. 



I make no doubt but there are three species of the willow-wrens ; * 

 two I know perfectly, but have not been able yet to procure the third. 

 No two birds can differ more in their notes, and that constantly, than 

 those two that I am acquainted with ; for the one has a joyous, easy, 

 laughing note, the other a harsh loud chirp. The former is every way 

 larger, and three-quarters of an inch longer, and weighs two drams and 

 a half, while the latter weighs but two ; so the songster is one-fifth 

 heavier than the chirper. The chirper (being the first summer-bird of 

 passage that is heard, the wryneck sometimes excepted) begins his 

 two notes in the middle of March, and continues them through the 

 spring and summer till the end of August, as appears by my journals. 

 The legs of the larger of these two are flesh-coloured ; of the less 

 black. 



The grasshopper-lark began his sibilous note in my fields last 

 Saturday. Nothing can be more amusing than the whisper of this 

 little bird, which seems to be close by though at an hundred yards 

 distance ; and, when close at your ear, is scarce any louder than when 

 a great way off. Had I not been a little acquainted with insects, and 

 known that the grasshopper kind is not yet hatched, I should have 

 hardly believed but that it had been a locusta whispering in the bushes. 



* There are just three of the British warblers which are liable to be confounded 

 with one another ; at the same time they are very distinct, and a little attention 

 to their habits alone would easily distinguish them. They are 



The WOOD-WREN, or warbler, Sylvia sibttatrix referred to before at page 25. In 

 its habits it is distinguished by frequenting old woods, being very partial to those 

 of oak, and being seldom seen among low or young plantations like the next. 

 Mr. Selby writes, "in a living state, it is easily recognised by its peculiar song, 

 which resembles the word twee, repeated twice or thrice rather slowly, concluding 

 with the same notes hurriedly delivered, and accompanied by a singular shake 

 of the wings." In form this is the largest species, it has a bright yellow eye- 

 streak, and the upper parts have a tint of sulphur-yellow, wanting in the others. 

 The belly and under tail-covers are pure white. 



The WILLOW-WREN or warbler, Sylvia trochilus, Selby, is one of our most common 

 and generally distributed warblers ; it is also one of our earliest sylvan visitants, 

 appearing almost with the first leaves of spring, and frequenting young woods 

 and plantations. It has a lively but limited song of a few notes, which is 

 constantly repeated. In size it nearly equals that of the wood-warbler. The 

 streak over the eye is indistinct, the upper plumage is of an oil-green or brownish 

 tint, and the upper parts are tinted with yellow, particularly the under tail- 

 covers. 



The CHIFF-CHAFF warbler or Lesser pettychaps, Sylvia hippolais, is very common 

 in the greater part of England, but becomes less common towards the north, 

 and does not extend far in that direction. It arrives very early, and is imme- 

 diately betrayed by its peculiar often-repeated note of chiff-cJiaff, which has given 

 to it its provincial name. It frequents old woods, as well as others of lower 

 growth. In size it is the least of the three, the eye-streak is very indistinct, the 

 upper parts oil-green tinged with grey, and the belly, vent, and under tail-covers 

 are primrose-yellow. The legs are blackish brown, whereas hi the other two they 

 are yellowish-brown. This is the ' ' chirper. " 



