THE REED-WARBLERS. 221 



main. His alarm note is a tek-tek-tek, often heard in an angry 

 tone. In its habits the bird combines the actions of a Tit with 

 those of a Flycatcher, feeding for the most part on insects ; but 

 in autumn it is said to vary the diet with ripe cherries, currants, 

 elderberries, etc." 



Nest. — Described by Mr. Seebohm as a very beautiful struc- 

 ture, generally built in the fork of a small tree, eight or ten feet 

 from the ground. He says that the nest is quite as handsome 

 as that of the Chaffinch, but slightly smaller, more slender, and 

 deeper. It is composed of dry grass, deftly interwoven with 

 moss, wool, spiders' webs, thistle-down, strips of bark, and 

 lichens, lined with fine roots, grass-stalks, and horsehair. 



Eggs. — Four or five in number, rarely six. They are pinkish 

 stone-colour, with spots, and lines, and scratches, of black or 

 purplish-brown. The clutches vary in the extent of the spot- 

 ting, some being sprinkled with fine dots, while others are more 

 boldly spotted, like those of a Bunting. In the latter small 

 underlying dots are visible, but in the smaller spotted eggs 

 the underlying dots are scarcely perceptible. Axis, 0-65-075 

 inch; diam., o^-o^. 



THE REED-WARBLERS. GENUS ACROCEPHALUS. 



Acrocephalus, Naum., Nat. Land- und Wasser- Vog., nordl. 

 Deutschl. Nachtr., iv., p. 199 (181 1). 



Type, A. turdoides (Meyer). 



The Reed-Warblers form a very natural group of birds, found 

 in nearly every portion of the Old World. They have a larger 

 bill than the majority of the Warblers, having this organ rather 

 depressed and widened near the base, the rictal bristles strong 

 and well-developed, and arranged in a horizontal row. The 

 wing and tail are about equal in length, the latter being more 

 rounded than in Hypolais, but not so much as in Locustella. 

 The outer feathers are more than three-quarters the length of 

 the tail. The first, or bastard, primary is so small that it does 

 not reach to the tip of the primary-coverts, and is less than a 

 third of the length of the second. It is, however, a little 

 longer in birds of the year. 



