The Wood-Warbler. 105 



Wood-Warbler ; the nests which I found having either been only just completed, 

 or perchance plundered of their contents ; not, however, by country lads, or they 

 would have been torn out and destroyed. 



The nest, like that of its congeners is semi-domed, and constructed of dead 

 grass mixed with leaves and occasionally a little moss ; it is lined with horsehair, 

 but never with feathers. The eggs number from five to seven and are pure white 

 more or less densely speckled, spotted or blotched with purplish brown and inter- 

 mixed with numerous shell-spots ; the markings are either scattered broadcast, 

 partly confluent so as to form irregular patches, or are partly collected into a 

 zone towards the larger end. 



The food of the Wood- Wren consists principally of insects, their larvae, and 

 spiders ; but there is no doubt that it also eats elderberries when procurable. 



The call-note has been described as dee-ur, dee-ur, but more probably the 

 sound is tee-iir, though the call of the Starling certainly sounds like Joey dee-tir, 

 hee-ur : it is not easy to distingu.ish the d from the t sound in a whistled note. 

 Touching another sound uttered by this bird Howard Saunders writes : — " Sloping 

 wooded banks are favourite situations for the nest, which often is not merely on 

 the ground, but is actually set in some natural hollow, well concealed by herbage. 

 The hen at times sits very close : when fairly beaten out, she will feed in an 

 unconcerned manner, uttering a low pi-o for a quarter of an hour or more ; after 

 which she works round to a branch above her nest, drops down abruptly and 

 enters it in an instant." 



Gatke says that the Wood- Warbler " visits Heligoland only in very isolated 

 instances, such few individuals as are met with being seen for the most part in 

 warm May days. During its autumn migration — from the middle of July to the 

 middle of August — the bird is much rarer." 



As an aviary bird the Wood- Wren would doubtless be interesting, though 

 neither specially remarkable for bright colouring or vocal merit ; I should however 

 expect to find it just as difficult to accustom to a change of diet as the Willow- 

 Warbler. I am of opinion that the few examples of Phylloscopus which, from time 

 to time, appear at our bird-shows are invariably hand-reared, although Swaysland 

 speaks of them as being easily tamed; and of the present species he observes 

 (Cassell's Cage-Birds) " If allowed to fly about the room, its first thought is the 

 selection of a perch ; when it has satisfied itself on this point, it will show great 

 expertness in catching the flies from off the walls and ceiling, always returning to 

 its favourite perch to eat them." Possibly my own want of success in keeping 

 the Willow- Warbler may have been due to the fact that my birds were captured 

 in July; for it has been asserted that, for some unexplained reason, Warblers 



Vol. I. q-\ 



