WILLOW-WREN 77 



which we have. ' Beginning with a high and tolerably full note, 

 he drops it both in force and pitch in a cadence short and sweet, as 

 though he were getting exhausted with the effort. . . . This cadence 

 is often perfect ; by which I mean that it descends gradually, not, of 

 course, on the notes of our musical scale, . . . but through fractions 

 of one, or perhaps two, of our tones, and without returning upward 

 at the end ; but still more often, and especially, as I fancy, after 

 they have been here a few weeks, they take to finishing with a 

 note nearly as high in pitch as that with which they began.' 



After this it is interesting to read Mr. J. Burroughs's impressions 

 of the willow-wren's song. He writes : * The most melodious 

 strain I heard, and the only one that exhibited to the full the 

 best qualities of the American songsters, proceeded from a bird 

 quite unknown to fame hi the British Islands, at least. I refer to 

 the willow- warbler. . . . White says it has a " sweet, plaintive note," 

 which is but half the truth. It has a long, tender, delicious warble, 

 not wanting in strength and volume, but eminently pure and sweet 

 the song of the chaffinch refined and idealised. . . . The song is, 

 perhaps, in the minor key, feminine and not masculine, but it 

 touches the heart. 



1 That strain again ; it had a dying fall. 



* The song of the willow- warbler has a dying fall ; no other bird- 

 song is so touching in this respect. It mounts up round and full, 

 then runs down the scale, and expires upon the air hi a gentle 

 murmur.' 



The willow-wren breeds early, making a circular domed nest on 

 the ground, among the long grass and weeds, under a hedge or 

 beneath a bramble bush on a bank, and occasionally at a distance 

 from sheltering bushes in the grass of a field. It is made of dry 

 grass, and lined with rootlets and horsehair, and, lastly, with 

 feathers. The eggs are six or seven in number, pure white, the 

 yolk showing through the frail shell, and giving it a faint yellow 

 tinge ; they are blotched and spotted with reddish brown. When 

 the nest is approached the parent birds display the greatest anxiety, 

 hopping and flitting about close to the intruder, and uttering low, 

 plaintive notes. 



The willow-wren stays longer with us than any migratory 

 warbler except the chiffchaff, and its song is, without exception, the 

 most persistent. From the time of its arrival in March, or early in 

 April, it sings without ceasing until July ; then for a few weeks its 



