The Oo/o<::is/s' /Record, June i, 1921. 41 



as far as I was concerned meant methodically parting sedge as 

 I tramped about over an acre or two of swampy ground. Gloves 

 are of course a necessity unless one is prepared to have ones hands 

 cut about by the sedge. 



My first find was after an hour or two and when I was beginning 

 to think it a hopeless business. I suddenly saw a pair of birds, 

 which I presumed were Savi's Warblers, flash acioss the open and 

 then dive down into the sedge not far away from where I was stand- 

 ing. I marked the place as carefully as I could and then proceeded 

 to beat the sedge with a stick about where I lost sight of tlie birds. 

 Suddenly out popped a bird from under my stick and, on parting 

 the sedge, I found a beautiful little nest well down in the sedge 

 and about i foot above the water of the swamp. I call it a beauti- 

 ful nest because, although made entirely of loosely woven dead 

 sedge, it was very neat and deep and looked very compact. How- 

 ever, on removing it, it promptly commenced to become unwound 

 and fall partly to pieces. This nest contained four extremely 

 incubated eggs of the usual type, i.e., buffish-white ground colour, 

 very closely spotted with small greyish and brownish spots which 

 formed a slight zone at the large ends. 



Shortly after this I saw another pair, apparently busy collecting 

 food or nesting material, and soon saw that they made for a par- 

 ticular spot and there I found a nest in the same sort of situation 

 as the last, containing two young with feathers well formed and three 

 unfertile eggs. As my time was limited I had shortl}^ after this to 

 leav^e the swamp, but I have no doubt that it was only a question 

 of time and patience to find more nests. The best date for fresh 

 eggs would appear to be during the first week of May, and I have no 

 doubt they can be found in many places where there are dense, 

 sedge beds. I cannot say I have ever found them actually breeding 

 except in the one place, but I saw and heard them in one other near 

 Gibraltar in 191 1, but in this same place they were not present,, 

 as far as I could see or hear, in 1920. 



Cetti's Warbler, Cettia cetti {Marmora) is a common bird in 

 Southern Spain, and its remarkably loud and distinctive note 

 once heard should never be forgotten. It is a bird that invariably, 

 in my experience, frequents the vicinity of running water and 

 wherever one comes across dense vegetation, particularly tamarisk, 

 bramble or bamboo, near water, there one can be almost certain 

 of hearing the curious song. It is an extremely difficult bird to 



