402 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



Sp. 246. CALAMOHERPE AUSTRALIS, Gould. 



Reed-Warbler. 

 Reed-Warbler, Lewin, Birds of New Holland, pi. 18. 



Acrocephalus australis, Gould, Birds of Australia, foL, vol. iii. 

 . pi. 37. 



This bird does not inhabit Tasmania, but is universally 

 dispersed among the sedgy sides of rivers and lagoons, both 

 in South Australia and New South Wales ; I also observed it 

 in great abundance on the banks of the rivers to the north- 

 ward of Liverpool Plains ; in all these localities it is strictly 

 migratory, arriving in September, and departing again before 

 the commencement of winter. In its general economy it 

 closely resembles its European congeners, but possesses a still 

 louder and more melodious song than any of them, except 

 the Calamoherpe tiirdoides. It is rather a late breeder, 

 scarcely ever beginning this natural duty before the month of 

 November. The nest, like that of the Reed- Warbler of 

 Europe, is suspended from two or three reeds at about two 

 feet above the surface of the water, and is composed of the 

 soft skins of reeds and dried rushes. The eggs, which are 

 four in number, ten lines long by seven lines broad, are of a 

 greyish white, thickly marked all over with irregular blotches 

 and markings of yellowish brown, umber brown, and bluish 

 grey, intermingled together without any appearance of order 

 or arrangement. 



The food consists of insects of various kinds. 



The sexes are so precisely alike that dissection must be 

 resorted to to distinguish them. 



All the upper surface olive-brown ; wings and tail brown, 

 margined with olive-brown ; all the under surface tawny or 

 deep buff, fading into white on the throat ; under mandible 

 fleshy white, remainder of the bill and the legs olive horn- 

 colour ; irides brown. 



