4. ACKOCEPHALUS. 91 



secoBdaries, and tail, has a more or less distinct dark-brown centre, 

 the quill-feathers only being uniform brown. In abraded summer 

 plumage the underparts are nearlj' white, buffer on the throat and 

 flanks in spring, and more or less suffused all over with buff in 

 autumn. In mauj- skins the lower throat and flanks are striated ; 

 in this plumage they are the A. cariceti of Xaumann ; these striations 

 occur both in birds shot in abraded breeding-plumage and in the 

 fulvous plumage after the autumn moult. Most ornithologists 

 ascribe the striated underparts to the adult plumage, and the un- 

 striated to birds of the year ; but I have not been able to obtain a 

 sufficient series of skins to satisfy myself of the truth of such an 

 exceptional change. The bill is Locustelliue and the rictal bristles 

 onlv slightly develoi)ed ; the upper mandible is dark and the under 

 mandible pale. Legs, feet, and claws pale horn-coloiir. Length 

 of wing 2-0 to 2-35 inches, tail 2-0 to 1-8, culmen 0-52 to 0-49. 

 Second primarv equal to or nearly equal to the third. 



The Aquatic Eeed-Warbler breeds in Central and Southern 

 Europe from the Atlantic to the Ural Mountains, also in North 

 Africa. Its winter quarters are unknown, but are doubtless in some 

 part of the African continent. 



a. Ad. sk. Unsern, Switzerland, Aug. H. Seebohm, Esq. [P.]. 



30, 1869. 



b. <? ad. sk. Villacidro, Sardinia, April 13, R. B. Sharps, Esq. [P.]. 



1n71 (A. B. Brooke). 



c. (S ad. sk. Yillacidro, Sardinia, April 13, H. Seebohm, Esq. [P.]. 



1^71 {A.B. Brooke). 



d. (S ad. sk. South France, Sept. 1876. H. Seebohm, Esq. [P.]. 



e. Ad. St. France. R. B. Sharpe, Esq. 

 /. Ad. St. Europe. 



2. Acrocephalusphragmitis*. 



? La Fauvette de bois, ou la Roussette, Briss. Orn. iii. p. 393 



(1760). 

 Motacilla schoenobsenus, Linn. Si/st. A^at. i. p. 329 (1766, descr. 



maliss.) ; Vieill. JN'. Diet. dHist. Nat. xi. p. 196 (1817). 

 Motacilla salicaria, Linn, apud Tiinsta/l, Orn. Brit. t^. 2 (1771), apicd 



Donovan, Xat. Hist. Br. B. ii. pi. xlviii. (1794). 

 ? La Roussette, ou la Fauvette des bois, Buff. Hist. Nat. Ois. v. 



p. 139 (1778). 

 ? Reed Warbler, Lath. Gen. Si/n. ii. p. 418 (1783). 

 Sedjre AVarbler, Lath. Gen. Si/n. ii. p. 430 (1783). 

 Svlvia salicaria (Linn.), apud Lath. Gen. Si/n. Siippl. i. p. 287 (1787), 



apud Lath. Lid. Orn. ii. p. 516 (1790), apud Leach, Cat. Mamm. 



* In my opinion no possible good cnn arise, and much confusion must be 

 caused, by rejecting tlie name in common use for the Sedge- Warbler, which 

 ■was well "defined bv Bechsteiu, in favour of the ill-defined name supposed to 

 have been given 1o it by Linnanis. I admit that the evidence of the ' Fauna 

 Sueeica ' leaves little room lor doubt that Linnseus intended to describe the 

 Sedge-Warbler, but his description was so bad that it met with the neglect 

 that it deserved. 



