MELODIOUS WILLOW WARBLER. 209
Mr. Gould also mentions that it builds on trees, as well as at times
in bushes and shrubs in gardens. The nest is made of grass, fine
roots, hair, and wool, the latter forming the lining.
The eggs are five in number, of a reddish white colour, blotted with
spots of darker red.
Male; length, five inches and a quarter; bill, yellowish brown, the
upper one darker, the lower paler; between it and the eye is a small
patch of yellow; iris, dark brown; head on the crown, neck on the
back, and nape, greenish ash-colour; chin, throat, and breast, pale
yellow; back, greenish ash-colour. Greater and lesser upper wing
coverts, greyish brown, the edges of the feathers rather broadly paler.
Primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries, brown, the edge of each feather
being lighter; tail, brown, the edges of each feather lighter. Legs and
toes, yellowish brown.
W. F. "Wratislaw Bird, Esq., to whom this work is much indebted
for valuable information and assistance, always accorded in the most
ready, handsome, and courteous manner, and in the true spirit of the
love of science, has forwarded a foreign skin of this species, from which
the plate has been coloured.