WILLOW WREN. 49 
WILLOW WREN (orn WARBLEB). 
PHYLLOScoPUS TROCHILUS, Linn. 
Pl. X., figs. 5, 6. 
Geogr. distr.—Europe generally; in Asia eastward to the Yenesay, 
and in Persia; in N.W. Africa, and in winter southward to the Cape; 
in Great Britain it is generally distributed and common in the 
summer, arriving towards the end of March or early in April, and 
leaving again in September. 
Food.—Insects and berries. 
Nest.—Semi-domed and externally somewhat carelessly constructed, 
though neatly formed inside; of dry grass, fern, dead leaves or moss, 
compacted with cobweb and lined with wool, hair, and feathers. 
Position of nest.—Usually on the ground amongst long grass, or in 
a depression in the earth; or against a grassy bank. 
Number of eggs.—4-7. 
Time of nidification.—IV-VI. 
This species occurs in groves of mixed trees, orchards, 
gardens, and the borders of woods, nesting chiefly in 
clearings or on the margins of woodland paths. A curious 
unfinished nest (i.e., without the dome-like covering) was 
obtained by me in 1883; the absence of the dome was 
partly compensated for by an overhanging clod. This 
nest, which contained four unusually well-marked eggs, 
was placed on the ground, under a gooseberry bush in a 
Kentish orchard; I have described it more fully in the 
‘ Zoologist’ for October, 1883, p. 491. 
Though commonly placed upon the ground, the nest is 
not invariably found in that position: one that I took on 
the 16th June, 1881, was built over two feet from the 
ground in the drooping branches of a wild rose-bush in a 
garden at Tunstall, in Kent; and in the ‘ Zoologist’ for 
1878, p. 851, H. P. P. Butterfield records two instances 
observed by him,—one in 1876, in which the nest was built 
between two rocks at a distance of three feet from the 
ground, and one in 1878, in which it was placed in a 
clump of whins two feet from the ground.* nad 
Though the number of eggs laid by this species is said 
to vary from 5 to 7, it is a singular fact that I have hitherto 
never found more than four in a nest. Mr. Newton, in the 
fourth edition of Yarrell’s ‘ British Birds,’ says, ‘‘ The eggs 
are six or seven in number.” 
* An instance is recorded by Mr. Alston of this bird building in a 
hole in a wall nearly seven feet from the ground. 
E 
