270 SYLVIAD.E. 



plumage, and nest of this species, which, he found, frequented 

 the reeds of the river Cohi from Harefiekl Moor to Iver, a 

 distance of about five miles. This bird did not appear in 

 Pennant's Zoology till the edition of 1812. 



The Reed Warbler comes to this country in April, and 

 departs again in September ; and is in its habits and man- 

 ners, as well as in the localities it frequents, so similar to the 

 Sedge Warbler, that wherever one species is found, the other 

 is almost certain to be within a short distance ; and the birds 

 themselves, from a certain resemblance in appearance, have 

 been frequently confounded : the Reed Warbler, however, is 

 not so abundant as a species, and the distinctions by which it 

 may be always known will be particularly referred to here- 

 after. Like both its aquatic congeners already figured, the 

 Reed Warbler talccs care to secrete itself under cover of the 

 bed of reeds or willows it may chance to inhabit : it sings 

 repeatedly in the day, and sometimes also occasionally during 

 the night. Mr. Selby says its song is varied and pleasing, 

 with fewer of the harsh notes that prevail in that of the Sedge 

 Warbler, but is delivered in the same hurried manner. Mr. 

 Sweet, well known for his skill and success in keeping the 

 British Warblers in confinement, says he had a male bird of 

 this species that sung occasionally all winter. The song was 

 very loud and variable, consisting of a great number of 

 notes, and sung with many changes of voice, so diversified as 

 to resemble the song of several different birds. The food of 

 this species in a wild state is very similar to that of the 

 Sedge Warbler, — namely, worms, slugs, various aquatic in- 

 sects, and the smaller species of dragon-flies. LibellultE. 



The nest of this bird is very singularly constructed and 

 sustained. That from which the vignette at the end of this 

 subject was drawn, was supported between four reed stems, 

 and was taken from a bed of reeds on the side of the Thames, 

 the surface soil of which was covered by water every tide, or 



