suiiinier may have brought forth. Its motions are all effected very quietly; and so closely does the 
colouring of the bird assimilate to that of the leaves of the trees, that it would be almost impossible to detect 
it, were it not for its movement and the utterance of its pretty but subdued song, which is poured forth on the 
wing as well as from some high tree. “ It consists,” says Mr. Macgillivray, “ of a repetition of the syllable 
‘ tweet ’ ten or more times, the first notes being prolonged, the rest gradually falling and becoming shorter. 
It may be heard at a distance of as much as six hundred yards or more, and is continued till the middle or 
end of July ; after which time it begins to Avane in strength, though repeated during fine weather till the last. 
It begins with the highest note, and gradually goes lower, d^A^elling on each several times ; in all, five whole 
notes of music. It is wont also, particularly in the early summer months, to emit a small- and rather shrill 
cheep. M^hen warbling its sweet and melodious lay, the throat is somewhat swollen, and the whole body 
thrills with the effort.” (Morris’s Hist. Brit. Birds, vol. lii. p. 243.) 
The nidlfication of the Willow-Wren takes place soon after its arrival ; the nest is placed on the 
ground, and so artificially concealed that it is often most difficult of detection. In some instances I have 
knoAvn a covered passage through the grass of a foot in length, before the nest was reached. 
A nest with eggs taken near the Holt at Preston Hall, near Maidstone in Kent, on the 29th of May, 1858, 
was secreted among thick herbage on the shelf of a hank ; it was of a partially domed form, outwardly 
constructed of moss, leaves, and dried stalks of grasses, and warmly lined with at least two hundred 
ph easant-feath ers . 
Another nest, taken at Formosa, near Cookham in Buckinghamshire, was of a deep cup-shaped form, 
roughly built of moss, dried leaves, and very fine straws, and thickly and warmly lined Avith soft doAvny 
feathers. It contained six eggs of a dull pinky AAliite, plentifully sprinkled with coarse blotches of light red ; 
Avhen bloAvn, the ground-colour became opaque. 
During the sojourn of the bird in this country, from April to September, tAvo broods are reared. 
The young, on leaving the nest, assume the colouring of the adult ; the whole of the feathers, hoAvever, are 
more suffused AAuth yellow, particularly those of the under surface ; at this age, therefore, the bird bears a 
richer livery than Avhen adult. Before leaving this country, a perfect moult takes place in the old birds ; and 
the sexes closely assimilate both in tint and size ; after the moult, they are more yelloAv than AA-hen they arrive 
in spring, but are not so uniform or so fine in colour as the young. 
All the upper surface yellowish olive ; Avings and tail broAvn, margined Avith yellowish olive ; over the eye 
a stripe of yelloAv ; mark before and behind the eye broAvn ; under surface Avhite, suffused Avith yelloAv on the 
sides of the neck, breast, flanks, and under tail-coverts ; upper mandible light olive-brown ; under mandible 
flesh-colour ; irides brownish black ; legs and feet light broAvn ; the under part of the tarsi and the soles of 
the feet inclining to flesh-colour. 
The figures represent a male and female of the size of life, on a species of Avillow gathered on the banks of 
the Thames in the month of April. 
