SEDGE REEDLING. 393 



stration. The nest is bulky, rather neatly but loosely con- 

 structed, like that of the White-throat Warbler, composed of 

 stalks and leaves of grasses and other slender plants, and lined 

 with finer grass and some hair. The eggs, generally five, are 

 eight- twelfths of an inch long, six-twelfths across, of a greenish- 

 white colour, dotted and freckled with light brown and greenish- 

 grey. 



A nest found by Mr Weir in a whin bush, and which is be- 

 fore me, measures in its external diameter four inches, internally 

 two and a quarter, and is composed of moss and straws, with 

 a thick lining of panicles of Aira caespitosa, and some down of 

 syngenesian plants. The eggs, four in number, are pale yel- 

 lowish-brown, freckled all over uniformly with greyish-brown. 



During the breeding season this species is rarely seen unless 

 one search expressly for it, as it seeks its food among the tall 

 plants and willows ; and the female will allow a person to pass 

 quite close to her nest without flying oiF. When disturbed, 

 she slips in a cowering manner among the plants, but after a 

 little while comes up, and frisks about, evincing great anxiety. 

 The common note is a small shrill cheep ; but the song is 

 lively, modulated, and mellow, although mingled with hurried 

 notes, resembling a sort of chatter. Several authors have re- 

 marked that a stone thrown into the bush or among the her- 

 bage in which it is, will set it a- singing ; but in this it is not 

 peculiar, for the same effect is produced by disturbing the 

 White-throated Warbler, and the Common Wren, as well as 

 occasionally the Reed Bunting. - I have heard the song emitted 

 at midnight at short intervals in the month of June, when in 

 the quiet of a fine night it has a very pleasing effect. The 

 first time I thus heard it was in Renfrewshire, while walking 

 from Glasgow to Greenock, on a very close and warm night ; 

 but the fact has been mentioned by many ornithologists. Its 

 food consists of insects of various kinds, which it occasionally 

 pursues on wing, and, if the report of authors be correct, of 

 worms and slugs. 



It arrives in England from the twentieth to the end of April, 

 but in Scotland seldom before the beginning of May ; and de- 

 parts in the end of September, or the beginning of the next month. 



