208 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



and incubation is already in progress in many nests. 

 The nests, whether attached to the withies or to the 

 tall stems of the meadow-sweet and other plants, are 

 mostly destroyed. 



I have gone into these details just to show that it 

 would be easy to give this bird a better chance of in- 

 creasing its numbers by inducing the owners of withy 

 beds where they are known to breed to do the mowing 

 at the end of May instead of in the middle of June or 

 later. This could be best done by local bird-protecting 

 societies in Gloucestershire and Somerset and in other 

 counties where colonies may be found. 



Certainly no sweet songster in Britain is better worth 

 preserving than the marsh warbler. I should class it 

 as one of our four greatest — blackbird, nightingale, 

 skylark, marsh warbler. The blackbird is first because 

 of the beautiful quality of its voice and its expression, 

 due to its human associations. The marsh warbler com- 

 pared with lark and nightingale has a small voice, which 

 does not carry far, but in sweetness he is the equal 

 of any and in variety excels them all. It could not be 

 otherwise, since he is able to borrow the songs of the 

 others, even of the best. He is 



That cheerful one who knoweth all 

 The songs of all the winged choristers, 

 And in one sequence of melodious sound 

 Pours all their music. 



Thus wrote Southey of the American bird in one of 

 the very few quotable passages in the vast volume of 



