WILLOW WARBLER. 121 
built of moss, leaves, or fern, and grass, a hollow being left 
in the side for the ingress and egress of the bird. It is 
lined with feathers, and with hair, the former being the 
innermost, and is pretty firmly compacted. It is placed on 
the ground, generally in woods, or among the long grass, 
brushwood, or weeds on the bank of some wooded hedge by 
the outside of a wood, or the edge of a pathway or open 
place in such. One has been met with in the ivy on a 
wall, and another in a field, several yards from the fence. 
The nest is carefully concealed. 
The eggs, of a rotund form, but varying much in size 
and marks, are from four to six or seven in number, and 
mostly light pinkish white, with numerous small specks of 
pale rusty red; some are less thoroughly spotted, and some 
most marked at the larger end, while others are only sparingly 
dotted; they are a little polished: pure white ones have been 
met with. The female bird sits very close upon them, and 
the male feeds her on the nest, she chattering to him the 
while, and he to her, and sometimes takes her place in the 
course of the day, while she searches for food. 
The young are hatched the end of May or beginning of 
June, and are fledged about the middle or end of that month, 
or the beginning of July. A second brood, if reared, is 
abroad by the beginning of August. 
Male; weight, about two drachms and three quarters; 
length, five inches; bill, dusky brown; the under mandible 
pale yellowish brown at the base, its edges dusky orange; 
those of the upper one paler; iris, dusky brown; over it is 
a light-coloured yellow streak, fading off backwards into 
white; under the eye is also an obscure yellow streak: the 
yellow colours fade with the advance of summer. Head on 
the sides, pale olive colour, or greenish grey, with a tinge 
of yellow; on the crown) neck on the back, and nape, dull 
olive green; the neck on the sides is pale olivaceous, or 
greenish grey, tinged with yellow; chin and throat, greyish 
white, streaked with yellow; the latter fades with the advance 
of summer; breast, silvery white, with a strong tinge of 
yellow, which fades towards the autumn; below, the latter 
is nearly white, but tinged with yellow; back, dull pale 
olive green, fading into greyish brown later in the summer. 
The wings, which expand to the width of seven inches and 
three quarters, have the first quill feather very shart, being 
only three quarters of an inch long, the second slightly longer 
