Pettychaps. INSESSORES. SYLVIA. 223 



winters of uncommon mildness, and in the warmest parts of 

 Devonshire. — Its arrival is announced by its monotonous song, 

 frequently repeated, and which it continues to utter through 

 the greatest part of the summer. 



The provincial names it has acquired, as above recited, are 

 expressive of the double note that forms the whole of this re- 

 petition. This bird is very common in the southern and mid- 

 land counties, but in Northumberland and other parts of the 

 north of Britain, it is not so numerous as either the Wood or 

 Willow Wrens. From the Yellow (or Willow) Wren {Sylvia 

 trochilns), although most similar in plumage, it varies in be- 

 ing of less size, and in having the upper parts less tinged 

 with yellow, and the legs of an umber or blackish-brown 

 instead of a pale yellowish-brown. The fine sulphur-yellow 

 of the Wood-Wren {Sylvia sibilatrix), the well marked eye- 

 brow, and the silvery whiteness of the abdominal plumage, 

 are sufficient to distinguish it from this species. I have al- 

 luded (under the Greater Pettychaps) to a mistake in Mr 

 Bewick's works relative to the synonyms of the lesser. The 

 present bird will be easily recognised under the description 

 of the Least Willow- Wren of that author. 



It frequents woods, thickets, and hedges, and feeds upon Food, 

 winged insects and larvae, in search of which it is in constant 

 motion amongst the branches. — Its nest is made in very low Nest, &c. 

 bushes, or on the ground, in tufts of grass, being composed 

 of decayed leaves and dried grass, lined with a profusion of 

 feathers. 



The eggs, five or six in number, are white, speckled with 

 purplish-red at the larger end, and with a few spots dispersed 

 over the sides. Although the earliest of our visitants in the 

 spring, it is also amongst our last autumnal fugitives, being 

 sometimes observed as late as the end of October. 



Plate 47. Fig. 1. 



Length between four and five inches. Upper parts oil- General 

 green, tinged witli yellowish-grey. Between tlie bill tkni"'^" 



