5o8 



PERCHING BIRDS 



and the broad buff line along the middle of the crown. Attempts 

 to distinguish between the two sexes by the colour of the legs and 

 the proportionate lengths of the wing-quills appear, however, to be 

 untrustworth)'. This close resemblance between the marsh-warbler 

 and reed-wren renders the nest and eggs the most satisfactory means 

 of recognising the presence of the former. 



The eggs may be distinguished from those of the reed-wren by 

 tiieir whiter ground, upon which are blotches and spots of purple and 

 greenish olive, with distinct underlying violet markings ; while the 

 nest, which is often built in reeds, is shallower and has a different mode 

 of suspension. 



The range of the marsh-warblcr is very similar to that of the 



reed-wren. Up to the close of 

 1 900 the species had been 

 detected nesting in Middlesex, 

 Cambridgeshire, Oxfordshire, 

 Nottinghamshire, and Somerset- 

 shire. In 1901 it was recorded 

 as breeding in Somersetshire, in 

 1903 in Sussex, in 1904 in 

 Oxfordshire, and in 1905 in 

 Kent. In the latter instance 

 the nest was built in the shoots 

 of a young ash -tree, about a 

 yard from the ground, and well 

 concealed b}' vegetation. 

 The aquatic warbler, or water - warbler {Acrocep/taius aq7iaticus), 

 which is a summer-visitor to southern and central Europe, from its 

 winter-home in northern Africa, is too rare a visitor to the United 

 Kingdom to be accorded a definite place in the list of British birds. 

 It may be distinguished from the sedge-bird hy the presence of a 

 t)road light streak in the middle line of the crown of the head, in 

 addition to a pale exxbrow- streak on each side. Eight specimens, 

 mostly from the southern and eastern counties, were recorded up to 

 1 900. Since that date the sj)ccies has been noticed in Sussex in 

 1902, in Ireland in 1903, in Norfolk in 1904, and in Susse.x and the 

 Isle of Wight in 1905, Most of the occurrences took place during 

 the autumnal migration. 



MAKSH-WAKBLEK. 



