SAVl'S WARBLEH. 398 



same locality. It lias been heard by Mr. John Brown in 

 Feltwell fen. In Mr. Newcome's collection is a nest taken 

 near Yarmouth. Mr. Stevenson has a bird which was shot 

 near Surlingham in June, 1856, and this is the last specimen 

 known to have been obtained in the kingdom. It may be 

 almost confidently asserted that the bird has not been noticed 

 in any other part of England beside the localities named,* 

 and is certainly unknown in Wales, Scotland or Ireland. 



In habits, Savi's Warbler resembles the species last de- 

 scribed, generally skulking in the thickest herbage and being 

 as reluctant to take wing. But it seems never, like the Grass- 

 hopper-Warbler, to quit marshy ground, and even this must 

 not only be of considerable extent, but also covered with 

 natural vegetation, reeds, sedges, sallows and the like, to 

 attract it. It used to arrive in the Eastern Counties, accord- 

 ing to Mr. John Brown's information, about the middle of 

 April, and at its first coming was not shy ; but, when settled 

 in its home and during the breeding-season, was not much 

 seen. Its song was a long, smooth trill, pitched higher, but 

 possessing more tone than that of the Grasshopper- Warbler, 

 and, like that bird's, chiefly heard early in the morning or 

 at nightfall. About the middle or end of May the work of 

 nidification began, and the eggs were laid towards the close 

 of that month or the beginning of June, The nest was cup- 

 shaped and deep, with a large foundation placed low in the 

 sedge, so as to be close to the ground : it was composed 

 throughout, in all the examples seen by the observer last 

 named — one of them, with three eggs, having been found by 

 him, June 10th, 1847, (Zool. p. 1807) of dry sedge-blades, and 

 these so firmly entwined that the structure was, as has been 

 mentioned, very lasting. Lining there was none, but the 

 blades forming the inside were somewhat finer than those of 

 the exterior. One of the first nests ever taken, figured in 



* Mr. More (Ibis, 1865, p. 23) was informed by Mr. Roundell, that he had 

 obtained eggs near Kingsbridge in Devonshire, and the late Mr. Green records 

 (Zool. p. 2849 and p. 3945) nests taken at Dagenham and Erith in 1850 and 

 1853 respectively. The Editor is not aware of the existence at any one of these 

 places of such haunts as this species loves, and we may perhaps reasonably sus- 

 pect that there may be an error in each statement. 



VOL. I, 3 E 



