48 



BIRDS OF GUERNSEY. 



fails in young birds and in adults soon after the 

 moult, before the quills are fully grown, and also 

 before the moult if any quills have been shed and 

 not re^Dlaced. This distinction is that in A, 

 streperus the second (that is the first long quill, for 

 the first in both species is merely rudimentary) is 

 shorter than the fourth, and in A. ijalustris it is 

 longer. 



Though I think it not at all improbable that the 

 Marsh Warbler, Acrocephalus palustris, may occur 

 in Guernsey, I should not expect to find it so much 

 in the wet reed-beds in the Grand Mare and at the 

 Vale pond as amongst the lilac bushes and orna- 

 mental shrubs in the gardens, or in thick bramble 

 bushes in hedgerows and places of that sort. 



36. Sedge Warbler. Acrocephalus schoenohcenus, 

 Linnaeus. French, "Bee-fin phragmite." — The 

 Sedge Warbler is by no means so common as the 

 Eeed Warbler, though, like it, it is a summer 

 visitant, and is quite as local. I did not see any 

 amongst the reeds which the Eeed Warbler delighted 

 in, but I saw a few amongst some thick willow 

 hedges with thick grass and rushes growing by the 

 side of the bank, and a small running stream in 

 each ditch. Though perfectly certain the birds 

 were breeding near, w^e could not find the nests. 

 So well were they hidden amongst the thick grass 

 and herbage by the side of the stream that Colonel 



