BRITISH BIRDS' NESTS. 333 



WARBLER, SEDGE. 



Description of Parent Birds. — Length four and 

 three-quarter inches. Bill fairly long, straight, 

 pointed, and brown, yellowish at the base of the 

 under mandible. Irides brown. Crown of the head 

 streaked with light and dark brown longitudinal 

 lines ; back of neck, back, and wing-coverts light 

 reddish-brown, mixed with a darker tint of the 

 same colour ; wing-quills dark brown, bordered with 

 lighter tinge ; rump and upper tail-coverts tawny ; 

 tail-quills brown, indistinctly barred ; from the 

 base of the beak a yellowish-white streak runs 

 over the eye and ear-coverts, the latter of which 

 are brown. Chin and throat white ; breast, belly, 

 and under tail-coverts pale buff ; under-side of 

 tail-quills dusky brown ; flanks bright buff. Legs, 

 toes, and claws pale brown. 



The female is darker on the under-parts, and less 

 rufous on the under tail-coverts. 



Situation and Local it//. — Amongst thick, coarse, 

 climbing herbage, brambles, wild rose, and other 

 bushes, near streams, rivers, and swamps, pretty 

 generally throughout the British Isles. Our illus- 

 tration was procured near to Leatherhead, where 

 the bird is numerous. 



Materials.— Gts^ss, coarse bents, and bits of moss, 

 sometimes none of the latter whatever, lined in- 

 teriially with horsehairs, and occasionally with 

 willow down. It is a deep, cup-shaped, loosely- 

 built structure. 



Eggs. — Five to six, pale yellowish or umber 

 brown, sometimes a little clouded, suffused, or 

 mottled with darker brown, and often streaked at 

 the larger end with a few short, haiiiike, black lines. 



