1NSESSORES.
DEN TIROSTE ES.
SYLVIADjE.
TH E W IL LOW WARBLER.
Sylvia trochilus, Yellow Warbler,
Motacilla „ ,, Wren,
Willow ,,
Regalus ,, Yellow ,,
Sylvia ,, ,, ,,
,, ,, Willow ,,
,, ,, Bec-Jin Pouillot,
P enn. Brit. ZooL vol. i. p. 511.
Montagu, Ornith. Diet.
Bewick, Brit. Birds, vol. i. p. 266.
F lem. Brit. An. p. 72.
Selby, Brit. Ornith. vol. i. p. 226.
J enyns, Brit. Vert. p. 111.
Gould, Birds of Europe, pt. i.
T emm. Man. d’Ornith. vol. i. p. 224.
T he W illow W arbler visits this country every spring
rather earlier in the season than the bird last described,
but about the same time as the Blackcap. Around London,
and in the southern counties of England, it is generally
seen and heard by the middle of A p ril; and Mr. Selby
has noticed its appearance in Northumberland as soon as
the larch trees become visibly green. The Willow Warbler
is to be found in greater numbers, as well as more
generally dispersed, than either the Wood Warbler or the
Chiff Chaff, with which it is generically united, and with
both of which it is sometimes confounded. This bird is,
however, readily distinguished from the Wood Warbler by
the darker olive green tint of the plumage of the upper
parts of the body ; by the light-coloured streak over the
eye being smaller, and not so well defined ; by all the under
surface of the body, and under tail-coverts being tinged with
yellow ; and by the shortness as well as by the structure
of the wing, the second feather of which is equal in length
to the sixth. From the Chiff Chaff, next to be described,
it is best distinguished by its pale brown legs, which in
the Chiff Chaff are very, dark brown, or nearly black,
with the second feather of the wing equal in length to the
seventh.
The Willow Warbler frequents woods, plantations, shrub-
berries, thick hedge-rows, and bushes on commons, is lively
and amusing in its actions, hopping or flying from branch
to branch, and capturing any small insect that comes in
its way. Its song, though possessing but little variety,
is soft and pleasing, sometimes given from a high tree, and
occasionally while on the wing, passing from place to place.
The nest is built on the ground ; and one of the situations
most commonly chosen for it is a wood hedge-bank among
long grass and coarse herbage. The nest is oval or rounded
in form, composed externally of moss and grass, with a
hole in the side through which the bird creeps to the hollow
space within, which is lined with feathers. The eggs
are six or seven in number, white, with numerous small
specks of pale red ; the length of the egg seven lines and
a half, and six lines in breadth. Mr. Henry Doubleday
tells me he has seen the eggs of this bird of a pure