SVLVIIN.K. 73 



THE MARSH-WARBLER. 



AcROCEPHALus PALusTRis (Bechstcin). 



The Marsh-Warbler is not figured here, for no wood-cut could 

 adequately show the points of difference between this species and 

 the Reed- Warbler ; nor, for that matter, can much be said in favour 

 of many of the coloured illustrations which are supposed to repre- 

 sent the former. Some English ornithologists have even been un- 

 able to recognize, in preserved specimens, the distinctions in plumage 

 between species which, in life, differ still further in their nesting-habits, 

 eggs, and song • and it is evident that the eyes of many persons are 

 incapable of appreciating the somewhat subtle differences of tint. 

 Others, again, have started under the disadvantage of not possess- 

 ing genuine specimens of the Marsh-Warbler, for only ten years 

 ago it was by no means easy to obtain them. Gould's coloured 

 plate in the ' Birds of Great Britain ' undoubtedly represents the 

 Reed- Warbler ; so does, in my opinion, the one in Lord Lilford's 

 'Birds of the British Islands'; while in Mr. Dresser's plate of the 

 two species in his ' Birds of Europe ' the respective tints are inade- 

 quately rendered, and the legs of the Marsh-Warbler are wrongly 

 coloured stone-grey, although accurately described in the letter- 

 press. The legs of the Marsh-Warbler are pale brownish flesh- 

 colour ; the general hue of the upper parts is at all times less rufous 

 than in the Reed-\Varbler, and more distinctly greenish olive-brown ; 

 while, except when much abradt:d, the wing-feathers are more 

 markedly tipped and margined with pale buff; the under parts are 

 tinged with sulphur-buff, not rufous-buff as in the Reed-AA'arbler. 



The Marsh-Warbler is a regular spring-visitor in small numbers to 

 Somersetshire, particularly to the neighbourhood of Taunton ; the 

 nest has also been found by Mr. C. Young near Bath ; and last 

 year, I believe, one was taken in Gloucestershire. The only satis- 

 factory British-killed specimens of the bird I have been able to 

 examine are those obtained near Taunton; and all of them were, to 

 my eye, quite unmistakable, although some of them had been pre- 

 served for years. My friend, Mr. F. Bond, has an undoubtedly 

 genuine nest and eggs of this species, taken some years ago in Cam- 

 bridgeshire, but a pair of birds obtained at the same time and place 

 are, in my opinion, simjily Reed-^\'arblcrs. 



