The young branchers may be caught in autumn by means of the owl, with limed twigs, and fed on ant’s eggs and small meal-worms. They will also soon take to bread and milk, or German paste, and become exceedingly tame, but are very impatient of cold.
It is most probably a native of Britain, like the preceding; but is not yet distinctly proved to be so.
THE HAY-BIRD, OR WILLOW WREN.
Sylvia Fitis, Bechstein; S. Trochilus, Latham; Le Bec-fin Pouillot, Temminck; Der Fitis Sanger, Meyer; Der Weidenblatt, Bechstein.
This species weighs about two drachms and three quarters; length five inches and a quarter. The bill is dusky above, yellowish beneath; irides hazel. The whole upper parts of the plumage are of a greenish yellow brown: the under parts are white, tinged with yellow; on the breast are a few yellow streaks; legs light brown.
This is a plentiful species in some parts; frequents wooded and enclosed situations, especially where willows abound; is frequently found with the wood wren, but does not extend so far to the west in England, as it is rarely met with in Cornwall. It comes to us early in April, and soon begins its usual song, which is short, with little variety. About the latter end of the same month, or beginning of May, it makes a nest of an oval shape, with a small opening near the top, composed of moss and dried grass, and lined with feathers. This is placed in the hollow of a ditch, or in a low bush close to the ground.