THE WILLOW WARBLER 
leaves this country towards the middle of September, 
and goes to Africa and other sunny countries, but 
each spring he is back in his old haunts, while his 
wife, Mrs. Willow Warbler, arrives some days after. 
She is an industrious bird, and soon starts building 
her nest, which is made of fine straws, dead grass 
and rootlets, and lined with horse-hair and feathers. 
It is beautifully covered with a grassy roof, and has 
a hole in the side for a doorway. Mr. Willow 
Warbler takes little or no part in the building. 
The nest is generally to be found hidden in the 
grass, but now and then one is discovered in a thick 
bush ; and once Mrs. Willow Warbler was found to 
have taken up a lodging in a Robin’s nest, built in a 
hole in a brick wall. She had carefully relined the 
nest with feathers, and added a domed roof. The 
Robins had already reared their brood during 
wintry March weather, when the hole had been many 
times blocked up with snow. 
In a clutch ” or sitting,” are from four to 
seven eggs, of a pinkish-white colour, with specks of 
pale rusty-red. While Mrs. Warbler is sitting on 
these, her husband brings her food most attentively, 
for she will leave the nest only in the early morning, 
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