The Marsh-Warbler. i i i 



Family— TURDID^. Subfamily— SYL I VLY.E. 



The Marsh -Warbler. 



Acrocephalus paluslris, BechST. 



IN the summer this species occurs over nearly the whole of Europe south of 

 the Baltic ; aud eastwards through Russia and Siberia to Turkestan and 



Persia ; according to Seebohm its occurrence in Asia Minor and Palestine is 

 doubtful. It winters in Africa from the Nile probably to Natal. 



In Great Britain the Marsh- Warbler is apparently very local ; the nest has 

 been recorded as taken near Bath, in Gloucestershire, in Cambridgeshire and 

 Oxon. I am satisfied that a nest which I found, with only one ^^"g, built in the 

 reeds near the margin of one of the Ormesby broads was a nest of this species, 

 although Ornithologists seem to be agreed that the Marsh-Warbler never frequents 

 reeds, but only swampy ground. The fact that this bird is a regular breeding 

 species near Taunton, in Somersetshire, was discovered through the acumen of 

 Mr. Howard Saunders ; the facts being as follows : — 



An Ornithologist, a Dr. Woodforde, had a collection of birds, and Mr. Howard 

 Saunders, who was visiting Mr. Cecil Smith, was taken by him to see this 

 collection : amongst the specimens shown to him were a bird with nest and one 

 ^SS' which no one pi^eviously had been able to recognize, and which Mr. Saunders 

 identified as the Marsh- Warbler. No sooner was this fact made known than Mr. 

 IMurray Matthew, then Vicar of Bishop's Lydeard, asked Mr. John Marshall, of 

 Taunton, if he could get old Coates, the birdcatcher (the discoverer of Dr. Wood- 

 forde's bird, nest, and ^g%, twenty years previously) to look about for a nest and 

 specimens of this species. Coates being then in Mr. Marshall's employ, went with 

 him in search of the nest ; in this they were perfectly successful, so that Mr. 

 Marshall was able to distribute both nests and eggs among his friends : two of 

 these nests came into the possession of Mr. Seebohm ; who, curiously enough 

 seems to credit Mr. Cecil Smith with the discovery of the breeding of the 

 species in Taunton, not even mentioning Mr. Marshall's name : the illustrations 

 of eggs of this species in the present work are reproductions of careful coloured 

 drawings of some of Mr. Marshall's specimens. 



E2 



