80 



BRITISH BIRDS 



beautiful structure, suspended on two or tliree, or more, slender reed- 

 stems, or on the twigs of a willow, osier, or other plant growing 

 near the water. It is made of long dry grass-leaves woven together, 

 with finer grass-leaves and horsehair for a hning. The eggs are 

 four or five in number, greenish white in colour, clouded, blotched, 

 and freckled with dark olive and ash-grey. 



Sedge-Warbler. 



Acrocephalus phragmitis. 



Upper plumage 

 greyish brown ; 



above the eye a 

 broad, distinct, yel- 

 lowish white streak ; 

 under plumage pale 

 buff; throat white. 

 Length, four inches 

 and three-quarters. 



The sedge-war- 

 bler, usually called 

 sedge-bird, and in 

 some localities river- 

 chat, is a common 

 species in most 

 waterside places 

 where there are reed-beds and willows ; it also frequents rough 

 hedges and bramble and furze bushes in the neighbourhood of a 

 watercourse. Sometimes, but not often, it is found breeding at a 

 considerable distance from a stream. It comes to us in April, and 

 is a most active and lively httle creature. Although not shy of 

 man, it is less easy to observe than any other species in this group, 

 except, perhaps, the grasshopper warbler, on account of its excessive 

 restlessness, the rapidity of its movements, and its habit of keeping 

 near the surface in the close reeds and bushes it lives in. The 

 grasshopper warbler, and, indeed, most small birds that inhabit 

 bushes, love to come to the surface to sing ; the sedge-warbler sings 

 much as he hurries about in search of his food, which consists of 

 small caterpillars and slugs, and aquatic insects. Occasionally the 



Fig. 30.— tSEDGE- Warbler. ^ natural size. 



