18 
was let out, and, in a few days, it began to sing in 
its aviary. It soon became so familiar, that it would 
take flies out of the hand ; and when it was out in 
the room, if a fly was held towards it, it would fly 
up, and take it out of the hand. It was also learnt 
to drink milk out of a tea-spoon, by putting some 
flies in it ; as soon as it had tasted the milk, it was 
very fond of it, as most of the birds of this genus 
are ; if the spoon was held towards it, and it was 
called Sylvia , it would fly up and perch on the finger, 
or on the handle of the spoon, and drink the milk ; 
but it never got so tame as the next species, neither 
was it so expert in catching flies ; perhaps the rea- 
son was, it became so very fat in eating so much 
bruised hemp-seed and bread, and milk and bread, 
that it cared but little for any other thing. 
These birds are very plentiful some seasons, flying 
about from tree to tree, and singing their pretty soft 
note, which is not unlike the song of the Red-breast, 
but not so loud. Wherever any plants are infested 
with any kind of Aphis , there the Willow Wrens are 
almost certain to be, often quarrelling, and flying 
after one another ; and they will even attack other 
birds that are much larger than themselves. 
The Willow Wren seems to be more tender than 
the next species, to which it is nearly related ; when 
in confinement, it is fond of creeping up to the other 
birds, for the sake of their warmth, particularly at 
night; and it will not rest till it is very near to one, 
against which it squeezes itself as close as possible ; 
this is also the case with S. hortensis. 
