Page:The British Warblers A History with Problems of Their Lives - 1 of 9.djvu/69

 horizontal branches of very small dimensions is really very graceful; one wonders how they keep their balance and yet preserve such a very aristocratic appearance. Climbing in this way up some bush—crawling, perhaps, is a better description—their whole appearance is peculiarly mouse-like, especially as wood-mice are themselves very fond of climbing up and sitting in small bushes, such as hazel, elder, &c.

The nest, composed principally of dried grass interwoven with dead leaves and bracken, is, even when the young are hatched, most difficult to find. Placed sometimes almost on the ground, sometimes a few feet above it, it may be found in very different situations, such as in the centre of a clump of Juncus effusus, underneath a thick mass of the same rush overhanging a small watercourse, in the middle of clumps of long dead grass, and low down in thick gorse bushes. During incubation, which lasts about sixteen days, the female seldom leaves the nest. I once, in June, saw a pair playing with one another as it was getting light, between two and three o'clock in the morning; they were chasing one another, and the female settled and rested awhile on a branch quite close to me. When disturbed on her nest she will slip off quietly on to the ground and be quickly concealed, but if not too much alarmed will return, threading her way through the grass in the same stealthy manner. If lucky enough to find a nest with young, watch closely the parent birds; time thus spent will by no means be wasted. One nest. I remember, placed low down in a gorse bush, and in a great measure hidden by long grass, gave me an exceptional opportunity of doing this. The locality I found by luck, for, when walking close by, one of the parent birds was disturbed and flew out, but it was only with considerable difficulty that I found the actual nest. Crawling under the gorse and lying flat was useless, as one or other of the birds would walk within a few feet of my face and stare; to stand up seemed hopeless, but nevertheless it ultimately succeeded, and while I was remaining perfectly still, patiently enduring torments caused