66 OUR FAVOURITE SONG BIRDS 



indeed it does not mate for life, as certain districts 

 are visited annually for nesting purposes. The nest 

 is made in willow-bushes, amongst dense thickets of 

 briar and bramble, or close hedges, or amongst the 

 coarse grass and reeds at the foot of the osiers, even 

 on the pollarded stumps themselves, but never sus- 

 pended to the reeds. It is small and loosely put 

 together, made of dry grass, bits of moss and sedge, 

 and lined with a little horse-hair or vegetable down, 

 and sometimes a feather or two. The eggs are five 

 or six in number, bluish-white in ground-colour, 

 more or less thickly clouded and mottled with buffish- 

 brown or greyish-brown, and often streaked with a 

 few pencillings of very dark brown. The parent 

 bird sits closely, and does little to betray the where- 

 abouts of the nest. But one brood is reared in the 

 year, and young birds and their parents appear to 

 keep in company and to migrate together. 



The food of this Warbler is chiefly composed of 

 insects and their larvae, but evidence is not wanting 

 that this fare is varied during the latter months of 

 its sojourn in our islands, with fruit and certain soft 

 berries. Sedge Warblers are certainly migrating 

 southwards in August, but September is the usual 

 time of departure from us, and odd birds may 

 occasionally be met with in October. 



The Sedge Warbler has the general colour of the 

 upper parts russet-brown, each feather (except those 

 on the rump) having a darker centre, which gives the 



