428 BRITISH BIRDS. 



In the hand the delicate shading of the eye-stripe^ and of the margins of 

 the feathers of the wings and tail^ is exquisitely beautiful, but is almost all 

 lost under the rude handling of the bird-skinner. The Wood- Wren is not 

 at all shy, nor does he frequent exclusively the topmost branches of trees ; 

 and with reasonable caution, a good binocular brings him almost under 

 your eye. During the pairing-season the restless tit-like search for food — 

 in and out among the twigs, over and under the leaves, from bush to bush 

 and tree to tree — is not so apparent. The little songster seems wholly 

 devoted to his song, and remains singing at intervals from his twig, though 

 ever and anon he leaves it for a short flight after a too tempting insect, 

 which he catches on the wing, and takes to the nearest twig to repeat his 

 song. In such a hurry is he to sing, that often, when flying from one tree 

 to another, he begins his song on the wing, to finish it on his perch. The 

 song, so aptly called by Gilbert White the " shivering " notes of the Wood- 

 Warbler, when once heard can never be forgotten. It commences, for the 

 first note or two, somewhat like that of the Willow-Wren, but rapidly in- 

 creases in speed, finally running into a trill. It might be expressed on 

 paper thus — chit, chit, chit, chit, cfiitr, tr-tr-tr-tr-tr-tre. 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. The loud and plaintive call-note is 

 in spring a rapidly uttered dee'-ur, dee'-ur, dee'-ur ; but in summer it alters 

 somewhat, is less rapidly uttered, and the first syllable is less emphasized. 

 The alarm-note is a whit, not unlike that of the Willow-Wren. 



The food of the Wood- Wren is unquestionably insects of various kinds. 

 Newton says that it eats neither fruit nor berries ; but Naumann asserts 

 that it is especially fond of elder -berries. It can scarcely be probable that 

 it is exceptional in this respect. Almost all insectivorous birds are more 

 or less beccafici in autumn. 



Its flight is undulating, like that of most flat-winged birds ; and it has a 

 habit of dropping down somewhat spirally onto a twig with half-expanded 

 wings, in a manner reminding one of the Tree-Pipit. 



In Yorkshire the Wood-Wren is much commoner than the Chifichaif, 

 but more local. It is rarely seen in gardens or very small copses, and 

 prefers the larger woods. I have never seen it more abundant than in the 

 large pine- and beech-forests of North Germany. 



The nest, which is extremely difficult to find, is always on the ground, 

 concealed amongst the grass, heath, or bilberry. It is semi-domed, com- 

 posed of dry grass, with sometimes a little moss or a few leaves, and lined 

 with horsehair, not with feathers. The eggs vary in number from five to 

 seven, and are pure white in ground-colour, spotted and blotched with 

 purplish brown, and with numerous shell-markings of violet-grey. Some 



