SUMMER VISITORS TO THE NEIGHBOURHOOD. 15 



The reed warbler sometimes suspends his nest from reed 

 stems over the water, but quite as often places it in bushes 

 or osiers. I am afraid I have already said something about 

 the marsh warbler here; but if you wdll allow me I should 

 like to mention him again, because it would not be right to 

 omit the most interesting of the three cousins. In the osier 

 bed to which I would take you, there are plenty of sedge 

 warblers and reed warblers ; but if you should chance to 

 be there fairly early in the morning in the latter half of 

 June, I think you would soon notice another voice at times 

 somewhat like the voices of the other two, but more often 

 quite different from them. You may perhaps see the singer 

 perched on a tall piece of meadow-sweet, or moving about on 

 the osier stems, more restless than the reed warbler, yet 

 with plumage almost exactly the same. It is really almost 

 impossible to distinguish between skins of the two birds; 

 but you will not for long have any doubt about the differ- 

 ence between them if you sit down and listen for half an 

 hour. If you are familiar with the songs of the commoner 

 birds, you are likely to hear a performance you would hardly 

 have believed possible. He imitates them one after 

 another — chaffinch, thrush, partridge, tree pipit, great tit, 

 swallow, willow wren, whitethroat, and many others. 

 There is no mistaking the spirit in which he does it. At 

 times he w411 sing a song of his own not very unlike the 

 reed warbler's, and then suddenly you could be certain that 

 a tree pipit is singing in the little clump of meadow-sweet 

 in front of you, were it not obviously impossible. 



In addition to the song, the nest and egg of the marsh 

 w^arbler are easily distinguished from those of the reed 

 warbler. The marsh warbler does not place his nest over 

 water, but among the rank herbage that grows in damp 

 places. Meadow-sweet is the favourite plant, though osiers 



