but the bird does not appear to be included in the edition of
the British Zoology published in 1 7 76 . The first edition of
White’s Natural History of Selborne, which contained
several notices of this bird, was published in 1789. In November
1792, Mr. Thomas Lamb supplied some particulars
of this same bird to the Linnean Society, which were published
in the second volume of the Transactions of the Society
; and in 1796 Colonel Montagu, having seen and heard
this species in various localities in several western counties,
and having obtained also some specimens, nests, and eggs,
furnished further particulars to the Linnean Society, which
were published in the fourth volume of the Transactions.
This bird is now very well known, and is at once distinguished
from the true trochilus, or Willow Warbler, with
which it is most likely to be confounded, by the broad streak
over the eye and ear-coverts of a bright sulphur-yellow, by
the pure green colour of the upper parts of the body, and by
the delicate and unsullied white of the belly and under tail-
coverts. In addition to these distinctions, which on comparing
the two birds will be found very obvious, the wing of the
Wood Warbler is nearly half an inch longer from the carpal
joint to the end of the quill-feathers than that of the Willow
Warbler, although the birds themselves differ but little in
their respective whole lengths : the wings of the Wood Warbler
when closed reaching over three-fourths of the length
of the tail, while those of the Willow Warbler, next to be
described, reach only to the end of the upper tail-coverts, or
less than half way along the tail feathers. The two birds
here named, and a third species, the Chiff Chaff, so called
from its particular note, are the only British species now
included in the genus Sylvia, as at present restricted. They
differ from the Warblers already described in the general
colour of their plumage ; in not being fruit eaters ; they almost
invariably build their nests on the ground, and their
nests are covered or domed at the top, like that of the
Dipper, already figured at page 178, and the little birds
creep into the hollow chamber within by a small round hole,
generally left in the side.
The Wood Warbler seldom arrives even in the southern
parts of England till near the end of April, the males, as in
some other instances, making their appearance a week or ten
days before the females. In Northumberland, Mr. Selby
says, this bird does not appear till the elm and the oak are
bursting into leaf; and that gentleman considers, from repeated
observations, that with all our summer visitants there
is a difference of ten days or a fortnight between their arrival
in the southern and northern parts of the kingdom.
The Wood Warbler is generally distributed through the
wooded districts, preferring old plantations and woods containing
tall trees, particularly those of oak or beech. The
males commence their simple song soon after their arrival,
and may frequently be heard from a lofty elm in a hedge
row. The note resembles the word twee, sounded very long,
and repeated several times in succession, at first but slowly,
afterwards much quicker, and when about to conclude is accompanied
by a peculiar tremulous motion of the wings,
which are lowered by the side. The note is also occasionally
uttered while the bird is on the wing from one place to another.
The song is continued throughout the greater part of
the summer, and the bird leaves this country in September.
The Wood Warbler neither eats fruit nor berries; its food
appears to be insects and their larvae; some are taken on the
wing, and others are sought for among the upper foliage of
trees. The nest is oval, and domed over, always placed on
the ground among herbage, and is formed of dry grass, dead
leaves, and some moss, and invariably lined with finer grass
and long hairs, but no feathers, which are used as lining to
some extent by both the other species of this genus, and
serve to distinguish their nests, which are also placed on the
ground, from that of the Wood Warbler.