THE MARSH WARIJLER'S MUSIC 215 



occasions I sometimes li.itl one singing almost continu- 

 ously for several minutes to half an hour within a dozen 

 yards of where I sat. At such times his strains sounded 

 louder but no less sweet than when heard at a distance 

 of forty or fifty yards. On one occasion I had him even 

 nearer, owing to a mishap. I was walking along the 

 dry bottom of a wide old ditch under a hedge at the 

 side of tlie withy bed, when I came to a deep pool or 

 hole full of mud and slimy water, and to save myself 

 the trouble of going round it I took hold of an over- 

 hanging willow branch and swung myself across to the 

 other side, but failed to get quite clear and was plunged 

 deep into the slime. After scraping off the fetid mud 

 and slime which covered me I went back to the deep 

 pool of clear water in the withy bed and taking off my 

 tweed suit and boots spent an hour in washing them, 

 then spread them out in the sun. The drying I thought 

 would take five or six hours, and as I could not roam 

 a!)out in my stockings and underclothing which had not 

 got wet, or return to the town and civilized life to get 

 a meal or tea, I thought my best plan was to spend the 

 rest of the day lying down close to one of the marsh 

 warbler's favourite singing bushes. There I made my- 

 self a nice bed of dry sedges in a sunny spot within 

 two yards of the singing-bush, and presently the cock 

 bird came and flew round and perched here and there 

 on the stems, scolding and singing. He went and came 

 a good many times, but at last gave up being troubled 

 at my presence, and eventually began coming to his own 

 withy-plant and to sing there fully and freely for long 



