60 THE BIRDS OF OXFOEDSHIEE. 



in May and early in August, which doubtless nested with us. 

 Examples procured in autumn have, as far as I know, always 

 been o£ the larger race ; in spring small birds occur, but one 

 which I observed on the 27 th March, 1881, at Adderbury, 

 sang from the topmost twig of a tall hedge, a characteristic, 

 according to some writers, of the larger race. 



THE BEED WARBLER. ' 



Acrocejihalus streperus. 

 The Reed Warbler is a regular summer visitor, but of local 

 distribution. The Messrs. Matthews say that it was met with 

 in one small covert near Weston-on-the-Green [Zool. p. 2533); 

 and in various localities along the Thames valley it is always 

 to be found. A few bred above Godstow, and perhaps more 

 below Sandford (H. A. Macpherson), and on the reed- and 

 willow-clothed banks of the upper Isis in the neighbourhood 

 of Bampton I have found Eeed Warblers common and even 

 numerous. In the Parks at Oxford it is always to be found 

 on the banks of the Cherwell at the spot known to Oxonians 

 as 'Parsons^ Pleasiu-e,' where, in company with Mr. Fowler, 

 who has paid considerable attention to this species, I have seen 

 it in fair numbers. In the Botanic Garden and in Christ 

 Church Meadow also I have listened to its song. The Hev. 

 P. O. Morris was informed by Mr. J. Dalton that the Reed 

 Warbler bred in Worcester College Gardens, and other local- 

 ities about Oxford might be enumerated. Mr. H. Gale 

 informs me that it used to breed numerously in a tributary of 

 the Thame, near Cuddesdon, but has decreased of late years. 

 This falling off in their numbers Mr. Gale is inclined to 

 attribute to the fact that Cuckoos' eggs are so often deposited 

 in the Reed Warblers^ nests, a state of things of course result- 

 ing in the birds so visited rearing up the young parasite in- 

 stead of four or five of their own species. So commonly was 

 the Reed Warbler^s nest selected by the Cuckoo, that upon 

 discovering- a nest of the former it was more usual than not to 



