THE EEED WARBLER. 119 



the Reed Warbler is of a uniform pale brown, and the 

 light mark is absent from above the eye. The haunts aiul 

 habits of the two birds are precisely similar, but the Eeed 

 Warbler is by far the less common of the two ; for while 

 the Sedge Warbler is sure to be found wherever the Eeed 

 Warbler has been observed, the converse by no means 

 follows. The parts of England in which it appears to be 

 most frequent, are Essex, Surrey, Kent, Suffolk, and Nor- 

 folk. In the reed-beds on the banks of the Thames, between 

 Erith and Greenwich, it is common. 



" The nest of the Eeed Warbler is often elegantly built, 

 and generally fixed to three or four reed-stems. It is 

 composed of slender blades of grass, interwoven with 

 reed-tops, dry duckweed, and the spongy substance which 

 covers many of the marsh ditches ; and, here and 

 there, a long piece of sedge is wound securely around, it; 

 the lining is of the finer flowering stems of grass, inter- 

 mixed with a little horsehair. It is a deep and solid 

 structure, so that the eggs cannot easily roll out ; it is 

 firmly fastened to the reeds in tidal ditches and rivers, at 

 the height of three or four feet from the water, but in still 

 ditches often not more than a foot. In windy weather, 

 when wading through the reed-beds, ' I have seen nests, 

 with both old and young in them, blown nearly to the 

 surface of the water ; but the birds fix their claws firmly 

 to the sides of the nest, -with their heads to windward, and 

 thus ride as securely in their cradle as a sailor does in his 

 cot or hammock." * The Cuckoo occasionally chooses the 

 Eeed Warbler's nest to lay its eggs in, for the same writer 

 remarks — "At the latter end of July, 1829, while reading 

 in my garden, which adjoins a market garden, I was 

 agreeably surprised to see a young Cuckoo, nearly full- 

 grown, alight on the railings between the two, not more 

 than a dozen yards from where I was sitting. Anxious to 

 see what bird had reared this Cuckoo, I silently watched 



* Mr. W. H. Thomas, iu the Zoologist, p. 97. 



