THE SALICAEIA. 89 



remain with us tbe whole year, have fledged young before 

 that time. In their crops was nothing very distinguishable, 

 but somewhat that seemed like blades of vegetables nearly 

 digested. In autumn they feed on haws and yew-berries, 

 and in the spring on ivy-berries. I dressed one of these 

 birds, and found it juicy and well-flavoured. It is remark- 

 able that they make but a few days' stay in their spring 

 risit, but rest near a fortnight at Michaelmas. These birds, 

 from the observations of three springs and two autumns, are 

 most punctual in their return ; and exhibit a new migration 

 unnoticed by the writers, who supposed they never were to 

 be seen in any of the southern counties. 



One of my neighbours lately brought me a new salicaria, 

 which, at first, I suspected might have proved your ^\'illow- 

 lark ;* but on a nicer examination, it answered much better 

 to the description of that species which you shot at Eevesby, 

 in Lincolnshire. My bird I describe thus : — " It is a size 

 less than the grasshopper-lark ; the head, back, and coverts 

 of the wings of a dusky brown, without the dark spots of 

 the grasshopper-lark : over each eye is a milk-white stroke ; 

 the chin and throat are white, and the under parts of a yel- 

 lowish white ; the rump is tawny, and the feathers of the 

 tail sharp pointed ; the bill is dusky and sharp, and the legs 

 are dusky, the hinder claw long and crooked."t The person 

 that shot it says, that it sung so like a reed sparrow, that 

 he took it for one; J and that it sings all night: but this 



* For this salicaria, see Letter xxvi. p. 98. 



+ Sylvia pkragmites. Bechst. Sedge warbler. — Soihyh Ornith. — W.J. 



J This is an error which runs through most of our books of ornithology. 

 The reed bunting, commonly called the reed sparrow, has no song. Like its 

 congeners, in this country, it has only a monotonous cry. The bird above men- 

 tioned, salicaria phragmitis, or sedge-warbler, is perpetually singing by night 

 if disturbed, as well as by day, and the reed-bunting has often got the credit 

 of its song. The sedge-warbler is very abundant at SpofForth, but I have 

 never discovered the reed-warbler, its near congener, here. Bewick has con- 

 fcMinded these two species, and has given a plate and description of the sedge- 

 waiblcr, under the name of the reed-warbler, which last has not been 

 ob-erved north of the Trent. The reed-warbler is of a uniform reddish brown 

 with a little olive cast on the upper parts, and whitish on the belly ; the sedge- 

 warbler has a light stripe over the eye, and the middle of each feather, on the 

 upper parts, dashed with very dark brown. I have found its nest on the 

 ground in a tuft of rushes, in long grasses and herbs, being made fast to the 

 •talks in a dead hedge, but most frequently in thorn fences, and low bushes, 



