198 EGGS OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



THE MAKSH WARBLER. 

 (Acrucephahis palustris.) 



Plate 52, Fig. 9. 



Thanks to the researches of Mr. Harting and others, the Marsh 

 Warbler must now be admitted to be a regular, though local, 

 summer visitor to England. On the Continent the geographical 

 range of the Marsh Warbler is almost the same as that of the 

 Reed Warbler. 



The nest, according to Naumann, is never placed over water — 

 not even over marshy ground. It is always built over firm ground, 

 though this is generally somewhat moist, as it cannot help being 

 on the bank of a stream, a situation often chosen. 



The number of eggs varies from five to seven, and in the colour 

 and character of the markings they present two very distinct 

 types, the one apparently as common as the other. The first 

 type has the ground-colour pale greenish-blue, with surface-spots 

 and blotches of olive-brown and underlying markings of violet- 

 grey. The peculiarity of this type is that most of the spots are 

 underlying ones, the overlying spots being fewer and smaller. 

 Each of these olive surface-markings generally contains a spot of 

 darker brown in the centre. The second type somewhat more 

 nearly approaches the eggs of the Reed Warbler, being of a 

 greenish -white ground-colour, richly marbled, blotched and 

 spotted with olive-brown, and having a few very dark-brown 

 specks. In this type the underlying markings are few and 

 usually small. In both types most of the markings are distri- 

 buted on the large end of the egg, sometimes so thickly as to 

 almost conceal the ground-colour. The eggs vary in length from 

 0'8 to 065 inch, and in breadth from 0'59 to 052 inch. 



THE ICTERINE WARBLER. 



(Hypolais hypolais.)* 

 Plate 52, Fig. 10. 



The Icterine Warbler has been noticed in Great Britain on 

 half-a-dozen occasions, and it is believed to breed occasionally in 

 England. It is a common summer visitor to the north of France, 

 Belgium, Holland, Germany, Italy and Sicily, but is very rare in 



* Hypolais icterinu — Saunders, Manual, p. 69. 



