62 OUR FAVOURITE SONG BIRDS 



it appears to be equally widely distributed. Outside 

 the British Islands its range is very wide, extending 

 over the greater part of Europe and Asia at least as 

 far east as the valley of the Yenesay, where Seebohm 

 remarked the bird's abundance. Its northern range 

 in the west reaches almost to the limits of continental 

 land, but in the east does not appear to extend much 

 above the Arctic Circle. I n South Europe and North 

 Africa the bird appears to be a passing migrant 

 chiefly, although it may possibly breed sparingly in 

 Algeria, the south of France, Italy and Greece. It 

 certainly breeds in Palestine, and is said to do so in 

 Corfu and Crete. Absent apparently from Persia, it 

 visits North-western Turkestan, although its eastern 

 limits in Asia are not yet determined. The winter 

 range of this species extends from Asia Minor to 

 some unknown area in the Ethiopian portion of the 

 Inter-Tropical Realm. 



The Sedge Warbler is a somewhat late migrant 

 to our area, usually not appearing, even in southern 

 localities, before the last ten days of April, and in the 

 northern and more remote w-esttrn ones not until 

 the beginning of May. Although this bird belongs 

 to the reed or marsh Warbler group, its haunts are 

 by no means confined to swampy localities. Its 

 favourite resorts, so far as may be estimated by the 

 number of individuals, are osier- and reed-beds where 

 the ground is more swampy than covered with water, 

 tangled thickets near pools and marshy spinnevs by 



