196 EGGS OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



and indistinct mottlings of yellowish-brown. A second type has 

 the same huffish appearance, but the markings are very much 

 more pronounced and of a richer brown, in some specimens deep 

 red-brown. Almost all eggs of the Sedge Warbler, of both types, 

 are marked with fine scratchy streaks of rich blackish-brown ; on 

 some eggs these pencillings are not continuous and can scarcely 

 be traced ; in others they are almost as pronounced as the marks 

 on a Bunting's egg. The eggs vary in length from 0"75 to 06 

 inch, and in breadth from 0'55 to 0"5 inch. 



THE AQUATIC WARBLER. 

 (A crocephalus aquaticus.) 



Plate 52, Fig. G. 



This species is a bird of the Western Palacarctic region. It has 

 been recorded on three occasions in England. It never makes its 

 nest amongst the reeds over the water, but chooses a bunch of 

 sedge or water plants near the bank, or a thorn or willow over- 

 grown with rank herbage. The nest is never placed on the 

 ground, but frequently only a few inches above it ; seldom more 

 than a foot or eighteen inches. It is suspended between the stalks 

 of the plants which grow close to it, and which are woven into 

 the sides. 



It is impossible to give any character by which the eggs of this 

 bird can be distinguished from those of the Sedge Warbler. They 

 are four or five m number, and vary in length from G"7 to 007 

 inch, and in breadth from 0"52 to 05 inch. 



THE GKEAT KEED WARBLER 



{Acrocephalus turdoides.) 

 Plate 52, Fig. 7. 



The only satisfactorily authenticated instance of the occurrence 

 of the Great Reed Warbler in our islands is the one recorded by 

 Hancock in his " Catalogue of the Birds of Northumberland and 

 Durham." It is a western Palaearctic species, breeding in Central 

 and Southern Europe, and ranging eastwards into Northern Persia 

 and Turkestan. 



The nest is usually placed in the middle of the reed-bed, about 

 half-way between the top of the reeds and the surface of the 



