WILLOW WREN 
41 
or barely touching it, this being one point of differ- 
ence from the Willow Wren's, which is often hard to 
distinguish from it. The eggs are usually six in 
number, white, somewhat sparingly marked about 
the larger end with dark purplish-brown spots and 
speckles. Sometimes the spots are almost black, 
sometimes chocolate-brown, and sometimes even 
crimson. The Chiff-chaff is greyish-brown above, 
with a tinge of olive-green upon the back, and 
dull white beneath. In appearance, as well as in 
its nesting habits and the colour of its eggs, it 
closely resembles the Willow Wren. The Willow 
Wren's song, however, is quite different. 
WILLOW WREN, 
{Phylloscopus trochilus,) 
Willow Warbler, Whitethroat, Haybird, Oven- 
bird. — The Willow Wren arrives with us almost as 
early as the Chiff-chaff, and is equally common in 
almost all parts of the country. It frequents the 
same leafy places, and extends its range to higher 
ground than the other species, being often common 
in the strips of birch, alder, and other low trees and 
bushes which cling to the stream-sides and other 
sheltered places on the lower slopes of mountains 
and high moorlands. Its song is almost as cease- 
