172 On the Ornithology of Wilts [Silviadce]. 



creeps, and at the bottom of the furze amid the thickest grass it 

 conceals its nest : indeed so shy is it that it is rarely seen, and hut 

 for its incessant chirp would escape general notice. Selby calls it 

 a ventriloquist, because it not only imitates the notes of several 

 other birds, but in uttering its peculiar note can cause the sound 

 at one moment to proceed from the immediate neighbourhood of 

 the listener, and at the next, as if removed to some distance, and 

 this without any actual change of place in the operator ; a pecu- 

 liarity which it shares with the corn crake, also a bird very diffi- 

 cult to raise on the wing. It is of elegant shape, and its plumage 

 consists of mottled shades of brown. Montagu speaking of the 

 localities where he had seen this bird, says, "we have found it in 

 Hampshire, South Wales, and Ireland, but no where so plentiful 

 as on Malmesbury Common in Wiltshire, to which place the males 

 come about the latter end of April." I have also many notes of its 

 occurrence in all parts of the county, but sparingly, for it is not 

 so common as either of its congeners, and is much more retiring 

 and timid. 



" Sedge Warbler." (Salicaria phragmitis.) We must look for this 

 elegant species by the banks of streams or the margins of lakes, 

 and there amongst the tall sedge and reeds we shall be almost sure 

 to find it, for it is by far the commonest of the genus, and few 

 patches of sedge or willow beds are without it : it is an incessant 

 songster, or rather chatterer, for its notes though very various and 

 rapid, are not particularly melodious, and yet from its habit of 

 singing throughout the summer's night, it has been sometimes 

 mistaken for the nightingale: when silent, it may be excited to 

 renew its song by the simple expedient of throwing a stone into 

 the bush where it is concealed. Its colour is on the upper parts 

 oil green and yellowish brown, and below yellowish dusky white, 

 but though it closely resembles its congeners in other respects, it 

 may on comparison be distinguished from them by the distinct 

 white streak that passes above the eyes. 



"Reed Warbler." {Salicaria arundinacea.) Very difficult, but 

 for the mark over the eye, just described, is this species to be dis- 

 tinguished from the last, which it resembles in the time of its ar- 



