Perching Birds. 



6i 



THE WESTERN 

 TREE-WARBLER. 



(Hypolais polyglottn.) 



nearly ahva_vs in summer. It is curious that a bird which is not rare in Holland, 

 Belgium, and North-eastern France in the nesting-season, should not occur more fre- 

 quently within the British Islands. The species is found throughout Northern Europe, 

 as far as the birch-region extends, and winters in South Africa. Although spoken of 

 in many works on British Ornithology as the' melodious ' Willow-Warbler, Seebohm 

 and other observers have failed to find any particularlv striking melod}' in its song, 

 which is described as partaking of imitations of the notes of other birds mixed 

 together, from which the species has probably acquired the name of ' Mocking-bird ' 

 in Germany. The food consists principally of insects, but it feeds on a variety of 

 fruit in the autumn. The nest is placed in the fork of a small tree, and is made of 

 dry grass, with wool and lichen and thistle-down intermixed, and lined with finer 

 roots, grass-stems and horse-hair. The eggs are from four to six in number, of a 

 characteristic pinkish stone-colour, sprinkled or spotted with black dots. 



Some years ago Mr. Howard Saunders assured me of his 

 belief that the present species occasionally nested in England, 

 as he had seen an egg obtained by a schoolboy at Lancing in 

 Sussex, which could only have been that of H . polyglottn. The 

 bird also had been obtained, but the specimen was spoilt in the skinning. More 

 recently an indi\'idual has been actually procured, as recorded by Mr. N. F. Ticehurst. 

 It was shot near Burwash, in Sussex, on the 30th of April. The species probably 

 occurs more often than has been supposed. H. polyglottn is very similar to 

 H. icteriun. but is smaller, and has a large bastard primary, and the second quill 

 is shorter than the fifth. It inhabits Western 

 Europe, being found in Spain and Portugal and 

 Central France, and is also found in Algeria and 

 Tunis, passing to Senegambia in winter. 



This species belongs to the 

 group of Sedge and Reed- 

 Warblers, which have the bill 

 somewhat flattened, with well- 

 developed rictal bristles. The 

 bastard primary is very small and does not reach to 

 the ends of the primary-coverts, though it is slightly 

 longer in birds of one j-ear. 



The Aquatic Warbler is a small species which 

 breeds in Central Europe, including Italy, Sicil_\- 

 and Sardinia, and extends eastwards to the Ural 

 mountains and Southern Rus.sia, wintering in 

 Northern Africa. It has occurred only three times in 

 England, as far as has been recorded hitherto, once 

 in Leicestershire, once in Sussex, and once in Kent, Thi: Aquatic Warhler. 



THE 



AQUATIC WARBLER 



(AcrocephaUts 



aquaticus.) 



