NATURAL HISTOUY OF SELBOHNE. 
39 
the young bird^ may be eluded. The eggs are short and round ; of a 
dirty white, spotted with dark bloody blotches. Though I might 
not be able, just when T pleased, to procure you a bird, yet I could 
show you them almost any day ; and any evening you may hear them 
round the village, for they make a clamour which may be heard a mile. 
Oedicnemus is a most apt and expressive name for them, since their 
legs seem swoln like those of a gouty man. After harvest I have shot 
them before the pointers in turnip-fields. 
I make no doubt but there are three species of the willow- wrens ; 
two I know perfectly, but have not been able yet to procure the third. 
No two birds can differ more in their notes, and that constantly, than 
those two that I am acquainted with ; for the one has a joyous, easy, 
laughing note, the other a harsh loud chirp. The former is every way 
larger, and three-quarters of an inch longer, and weighs two drams and 
a half, while the latter weighs but two ; so the songster is one-fifth 
heavier than the chirper. The chirper (being the first summer-bird of 
passage that is heard, the wryneck sometimes excepted) begins his 
two notes in the middle of March, and continues them through the 
spring and summer till the end of August, as appears by my journals. 
The legs of the larger of these two are flesh-coloured ; of the less 
black. 
The grasshopper-lark began his sibilous note in my fields last 
Saturday. Nothing can be more amusing than the whisper of this 
little bird, which seems to be close by though at an hundred yards 
distance ; and, when close at your ear, is scarce any louder than when 
a great way off. Had I not been a little acquainted with insects, and 
known that the grasshopper kind is not yet hatched, I should have 
hardly believed but that it had been a locusta whispering in the bushes. 
* There are just three of the British warblers which are liable to be confounded 
with one another ; at the same time they are very distinct, and a little attention 
to their habits alone would easily distinguish them. They are — 
The Wood-Wren, or warbler, Sylvia sibilatrix referred to before at page 25. In 
its habits it is distinguished by frequenting old woods, being very partial to those 
of oak, and being seldom seen among low or young plantations like the next. 
Mr. Selby writes, "in a living state, it is easily recognised by its peculiar song, 
which resembles the word twee, repeated twice or thrice rather slowly, concluding 
with the same notes hurriedly delivered, and accompanied by a singular shake 
of the wings." In form this is the largest species, it has a bright yellow eye- 
streak, and the upper parts have a tint of sulphur-yellow, wanting in the others. 
The belly and under tail-covers are pure white. 
The Willow- Wren or warbler, Sylvia trochilus, Selby, is one of our most common 
and generally distributed warblers ; it is also one of our earliest sylvan visitants, 
appearing almost with the first leaves of spring, and frequenting young woods 
and plantations. It has a lively but limited song of a few notes, which is 
constantly repeated. In size it nearly equals that of the wood-warbler. The 
streak over the eye is indistinct, the upper plumage is of an oil -green or brownish 
tint, and the upper parts are tinted with yellow, particularly the under tail- 
covers. 
The Chiff-Ohaff warbler or Lesser pettychaps, Sylvia hippolais, is very common 
in the greater part of England, but becomes less common towards the north, 
and does not extend far in that direction. It arrives very early, and is imme- 
diately betrayed by its peculiar often-repeated note of chiff-chaff, which has given 
to it its provincial name. It frequents old woods, as well as others of lower 
growth. In size it is the least of the three, the eye-streak is very indistinct, the 
upper parts oil-green tinged with grey, and the belly, vent, and under tail-covers 
are primrose-yellow. The legs are blackish brown, whereas in the other t ,vo they 
are yellowish-brown. This is the " chirper." 
