PerrycHars. PASSERES. SYLVIA. 187 
Jand 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 Difference 
trochilus), although most similar in plumage, it varies in be- nigbeee 
ing of less size, and in having the upper parts less tinged and the 
with yellow, and the legs of an umber or blackish-brown ae 
instead of a pale yellowish brown. The fine sulphur-yellow Wrens. 
of the wood-wren (Sylvia sibilatria), the well marked eye- 
brow, and the silvery whiteness of the abdominal plumage, are 
sufficient to distinguish it from this species. I have alluded 
(under the Greater Pettychaps), to a mistake in Mr Be- 
wicx’s work, relative to the synonymes 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 ; in search of which it is in constant motion 
amongst the branches. —lIts nest is made in very low bushes, Nest, &c. 
or on the ground, in tufts of grass, beg composed of de- 
cayed leaves and dried grass, lined with a profusion of fea- 
thers. 
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. 
Pruate 47. Fig. 1. 
Length between four and five inches. 
Upper parts oil-green, tinged with yellowish-grey. Between General 
the bill and! eyes, and over each eye, is a narrow faint eee 
yellowish-white streak. Wing-coverts pale yellowish- 
brown, margined with yellowish-grey. 
The whole of the under parts, including the wnder tail-coverts, 
pale primrose-yellow. Legs and feet blackish-brown. 
