GREAT REED-WARBLER. 363 
and although it is able, on its winter migration, to reach as far south as 
the Transvaal, and even Natal, for some reason or other it objects to cross 
both the English Channel and the Baltic. We are therefore obliged to 
visit the continent to make the acquaintance of this charming bird; but 
long before the steamer reaches Rotterdam the ornithologist who crosses 
over late in May will hear its loud, if not very musical, song in the reeds 
on the banks of the river, and, before he has become familiar with the 
note, may possibly mistake it for the croaking of frogs as he hears it 
for the first time amidst the splashing of water and the muffled jar of the 
engine. : 
Early in May, when many of the commoner summer migrants whose 
range extends also to our islands are busily engaged in the duties of incu- 
bation, a few of the most adventurous Great Reed-Warblers arrive at their 
breeding-grounds ; towards the middle of the month they are tolerably 
common, and begin to make preparations for building; but it is vain to 
look for eggs before the last week in May. One reason for their late 
migration may possibly be the fact that the reeds in which they build 
do not reach maturity earlier ; but probably the more potent cause of delay 
is connected with the supply of food, as they are not only very late in 
arriving, but are also very early in departing. Their song ceases about the 
middle of July ; during August their numbers rapidly diminish ;. and early 
in September you may search the reeds for them in vain. 
When the Great Reed-Warbler first arrives at its breeding-quarters it 
may occasionally be seen in the willows and other bushes which are often 
found in the marshes near the reed-beds; but usvally it is only seen in 
the reeds. Its loud song causes its presence to be at once detected ; and 
with a little caution there is no difficulty in obtaining a sight of the bird. 
In May, last year, I saw a great deal of this bird as I strolled amongst the 
twenty-two ponds in the grounds of the old Cistercian Monastery at Rid- 
dagshausen, near Brunswick, now converted into the residence of my friend 
Oberamtmann Nehrkorn. Many of these ponds are full of reeds, and are 
frequented by great numbers of these birds. On the 16th of May I stood 
for some time under a pollard willow not five yards from a Great Reed- 
Warbler, listening to his harsh croaking as he sat unconcerned on one of 
the branches. When finally I frightened him away to see what he would 
do, he did not plunge into the reeds, which, by the way, were not yet full- 
grown, but he flew over them to a willow bush, where, conspicuously 
perched near the top of a perpendicular branch, he resumed his song. 
Four days later I found his nest; and on the 22nd it contained one egg. 
Both birds were in the reeds close by, and flew angrily at me as I bent 
down the reeds to peep in, croaking at me like a couple of frogs. Later 
on, im Pomerania, on the 5th of June, in the reed-beds in the Garde 
See, the Great Reed-Warbler was equally common. Now and then we 
