90 BRITISH BIRDS. [VoL Is 
the young birds had evidently moved some distance away, 
where the parent-bird was heard calling. The young birds 
(four were counted) appeared in the kitchen-garden on 
July 29th, when they were being fed by the parent-bird. 
They then seemed strong on the wing and to be capable of 
looking after themselves. 
From the commencement of the construction of the nest 
on June 20th to the young birds leaving it on July 21st 
involved a period of thirty-one completed days of twenty-four 
hours each ; and the following operations or processes occupied 
the periods stated—a day being reckoned as twenty-four 
hours :— 
Nidification, June 20th to 23rd—3 days. 
Laying of eggs (five), June 24th to 28th—4 days. 
Incubation of four eggs, June 28th to July 10th—12 days. 
The fifth egg was hatched on July 11th. 
Fledging of young birds. Four nestlings, July 10th to 
2lst—11 days. One nestling, July llth to 21st— 
10 days. 
I am convinced that one bird only—the female—performed 
the whole of the work of building the nest, producing the eggs 
and incubating them, and the rearing of the brood. With 
the exception of the doubtful appearance of its mate on June 
22nd, nothing whatever was seen or heard in the vicinity 
of the nest, during the proceedings on question, of any other 
Willow-Wren than the one bird—the female—which alone 
and unaided accomplished the undertaking. 
As is well known, the Willow-Wren usually places its nest 
on the ground, and this is only the second example I have 
personally come across of this species having built its nest 
at any appreciable distance from it. The other instance 
referred to was a Willow-Wren’s nest I found in June 1899, 
in a compact wild rose-bush in a wood. This nest was four 
feet six inches above the ground, and was placed on a branch 
of a spruce-fir which was growing through the rose-bush. 
Howard Saunders (Illustrated Manual of British Birds, 
2nd edn., p. 70) says the Willow-Wren’s nest is exceptionally 
placed up to four feet from the ground, or even in a hole in a 
wall, and he told me, since the Manual was published in 1899, 
that four feet still remained his highest record, but several 
much greater altitudes have been recorded. 
Water B. ARUNDEL. 
On June 23rd, 1917, we found here (Northumberland) a 
Willow-Wren’s nest built against the trunk of a young 
spruce-fir at a vertical height of 134 ft. sheer. These © 
