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greater number of our warblers. Like most of the true warblers, it 
is insectivorous, and the tall aquatic plants are its game preserves. 
There it finds in abundance sprawling water beetles, and spiders, 
and dancing gnats, and dragon flies gleaming in the sun like 
winged emeralds,--and feeds away right merrily. It is a sweet 
songster, to my fancy, singing all day long nearly, and easily made 
to sing by simply throwing a stone into the bushes. Many a time 
when fishing by night, have I disturbed the Sedge Warbler, and set 
him off singing : first a few sharp discordant notes of alarm, and 
then breaking forth into full song, imitating various birds to per- 
fection. Its singing is very singular as it sounds from the bushes 
at the water side at night, and the angler at that lone hour listens 
with wonder and delight to the pleasant music. I once heard it 
imitate the chirrup of the house sparrow to such perfection, that I 
thought it was one, till I got a full view of the bird. I should call 
it a polyglot amongst the warblers ; and, according to an article in 
“Science Gossip,” it is called in Ireland the Irish nightingale. 
It does not, as its name implies, always breed among the 
sedges, as in the dry sandy lanes round Swine Hill, behind the 
County Asylum, I have often found its nests, and also on King- 
moor. I once found one in Botcherby lane, leading down to the 
water side, at the top of a tall hawthorn hedge. I may also remark 
a curious piece of nest building, in some hawthorn bushes at Eden 
side. I discovered a nest with six eggs in it, and through the 
centre of the nest a sharp thorn projected, about three-quarters of 
an inch in length, and the eggs were beautifully placed around it. 
How the bird contrived to deposit her eggs without injuring 
herself, has been a puzzle to me; and as I was never able to 
inspect the nest again that season, I cannot say whether the young 
were hatched successfully or not. 
The Sedge Warbler is a very common bird in this district, and 
_ you may hear three or four any fine summer evening in walking 
over Etterby scaur. I knew of several nests last season on the 
scaur, within a short distance of each other. The nest is generally 
built in low bushes, sedges, etc.; it is composed of dry stalks of 
grass, sometimes mixed with a little moss, and lined with fine 
