104 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs. 



The young bird is slightly more yellow than adults; but the sexes are much 

 alike. 



The Wood- Wren is rarely with us until towards the end of April, and in 

 September it commences its winter emigration : in its habits it is not unlike its 

 congeners, but is more exclusively a bird of the forests and the larger woods, than 

 of copses and plantations. Lord Lilford, in his "Birds of Northamptonshire" 

 says : — " So far as mj' experience goes of the Wood- Wren, or Wood- Warbler (as 

 this bird is, I think, more generally called) it is fond of woods of high trees, 

 especially of beech, beneath which there is little or no undergrowth with the 

 exception of occasional tufts of coarse grass in the scattered spots not actually 

 overshadowed by the spreading branches of the trees. In these and similar 

 localities we occasionally hear, about the beginning of Maj^ a very peculiar note, 

 which is described by White, of Selborne, as ' a sibilous grasshopper-like noise :' 

 sibilous it certainly is, but I can perceive no resemblance in it to the cry of the 

 grasshopper. A good description will be found in the fourth edition of Yarrell ; 

 but even this fails to convey exactly the sound produced, though I certainly am 

 unable to improve upon it, and can only say that to my ear it has a certain 

 resemblance to the sound of the wings of wild ducks when flying overhead, 

 though, as stated by Yarrell, it begins slowly, and is more musical than any 

 sound produced by mere muscular action can well be. This song is accompanied 

 by a quivering of the wings, which are drooped during the performance." 



]\Ir. Blyth described the song as " Tivit, hvit, hint, tit, tit, tit, ti-ti-ti-i-i-i, begin- 

 ning slow, but gradualty becoming quicker and quicker, until it dies awa}- in a 

 kind of thrill ; " and Seebohm saj^s : — " It might be expressed on paper thus — 

 chit, chit, chit, chit, chitr, tr-tr-tr-tr-tr-trc. The final trill somewhat resembles the note 

 of the Grasshopper Warbler or the lesser Redpole, or the prolonged ' shivering ' 

 part of the song of the Common Wren ; and during its utterance the wings and 

 tail, if not the whole body of the bird, vibrate with the exertion." Unfortunately 

 when I have heard the bird, I have been too eagerlj^ engaged in search of its nest 

 to make notes respecting its song, or I would give my own rendering : memory is 

 a treacherous staff to lean upon, but so far as it serv^es me in this particular 

 instance, I should be inclined to accept Seebohm's rather than Blyth's version, as 

 not only appealing to my conviction of its greater accuracy as a reminiscence, but 

 as sounding less like a particularly irritating street song. 



I have, several times, found the nest of this species in coarse grass-tussocks, 

 or amongst the dead leaves of a small branch, torn off by the wind and half 

 hidden by grass and nettle; always, however, in openings in beech or oak-woods, 

 and not far from the outskirts. Unfortunately I never secured anj- eo-gs of the 



