MARSH REEDLING. 731 



could very seldom get a glimpse of him. The female usually 

 dropt from her nest in the same way as the Grasshopper Chir- 

 per, and with the most astonishing rapidity winded her way 

 through the grasses, weeds, and other entanglements, and in a 

 moment disappeared. When catching insects their motions 

 seemed to be like those of the Larger Wliitethroats. Their 

 young ones were very impatient of observation, for on my tak- 

 ing one in my hands in order to examine it, it no sooner gave 

 a chirp, no doubt its alarm- note, than the rest of them imme- 

 diately leaped out of their abode, although not much more than 

 half-fledged, and with great celerity hopped amongst the grass." 



Another nest of this bird obtained near Oxford is very simi- 

 lar to that found by Mr AVeir, but has no moss internally. Both 

 are so loosely interwoven that one may perceive an object through 

 them. In the English specimen the outer blades of grasses are 

 larger, and instead of cotton thread, some small tufts of wool 

 are intermixed. The interior is formed of delicate panicles of 

 grasses, fine fibrous roots, and a little hair, its breadth two 

 inches and a half, its depth one inch and ten twelfths, the ex- 

 ternal diameter four inches and a quarter. The five eggs which 

 it contains are similar to that described above, but less broadly 

 ovate, and varying considerably in their tints, 



Mr Hepburn informs me that he saw seven or eight indivi- 

 duals, in East Lothian, in the summer of 1839. 



CALAMOHERPE ARUNDINACEA. THE MARSH 

 REEDLING. Vol. II, p. 395. 



" This bird," says Mr Harley, " invariably attaches its nest 

 to the stalks of reeds, and to those of the common nettle. I 

 have before me a nest which I took from a willow-holt, on the 

 20th of May 1839. It is attached to three stalks of the nettle, 

 and was about four feet from the ground. It is internally and 

 externally composed of fine grasses, and small fibrous roots, 

 without any hair about it. The nettle stalks were of the pre- 

 vious year's growth. It is deeper and more bulky than that 



