SEDGE AVARBLER. 267 



hatched towards the end of May or the beginning of 

 June. 



The Sedge Warbler, as before observed, is neither so 

 local nor so limited in numbers as the species which here 

 precedes it, or that which follows it. 



The marshy banks of the Thames, on either side of the 

 river where beds of willows or reeds abound, are well stocked 

 with this bird ; although from the wet and muddy nature of 

 the ground they are not very easy to get at. In the south- 

 ern and western counties it occurs in Hampshire, Dorsetshire, 

 Devonshire, Cornwall, and in Wales; and from Mr. AVm. 

 Thompson of Belfast, I learn that it is a regular summer vi- 

 siter to the North of Ireland. It occurs also in the marshes 

 of Essex, in Suffolk, Norfolk, Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, North- 

 umberland, and Lancashire, and was traced by Mr. Selby in 

 Sutlierlandshire to the northern extremity of the island : " it 

 was found pretty generally distributed along the margins of the 

 lochs, particularly where low birchen coppice and reedy grass 

 abounded. The well-known babbling notes of this wakeful 

 little bird proclaimed its presence in many unexpected situ- 

 ations." Mr. Hewitson saw it in Norway ; M. Nilsson re- 

 cords it as a summer visiter to Sweden ; and Pennant, in his 

 Arctic Zoology, says it frequents Russia and Siberia even to 

 the Arctic Circle. It inhabits all the marshes and sides of 

 rivers in Holland ; is a common bird in Germany, France, 

 Provence, and Italy, which last country it leaves early in Oc- 

 tober and returns in April. Mr. Strickland saw this species 

 at Smyrna in December. 



The beak is brown ; from the gape to the eye a brown 

 streak ; irides brown ; from the top of the eye a broad streak 

 of yellowish white passes backward over the ear-coverts ; the 

 ear-coverts dark brown ; the top of the head streaked longi- 

 tudinally with dark and light brown, and thus mixed is darker 

 than the plumage of the nape, forming a hood : back and 



