130 THE BIRDS OF NOBTHAMPTONSHIRE 



51. WOOD-WREN. 



Pliijlloscopus sihilatrix. 



With us at Lilford, this species is by no means 

 abundant, and I could never make certain of finding 

 its nest in my school-days, or rather holidays, in our 

 neighbourhood, though I did stumble upon one casu- 

 ally now and then. So far as my 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 occa- 

 sional tufts of coarse grass in the scattered spots not 

 actually overshadowed by the spreading branches of 

 the trees. In these and similar localities we occa- 

 sionally hear, about the beginning of May, a very 

 peculiar note, wdiich is described by AVhite, of Sel- 

 borne, 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 descrip- 

 tion will be found in the fourth edition of Yarrell ; 

 but even this fails to convey exactly the sound pro- 

 duced, 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. 



The A^^ood-Wren is everywhere a very local bird ; 

 I never met with it anywhere in great abundance, 

 but heard it more frequently during a few days' 

 rambles in the New Forest, in the neighbourhood of 



