62 THE BIRDS OF OXFOEDSHIRE. 



in the month of June^ {hi lit.). In appearance this species is 

 very similar to the Reed Warbler^ but its song is said to be 

 more melodious, and its eg-gs are described as having a whiter 

 ground colour. ^ 



THE SEDGE WARBLER. J ^ 



Acrocephalus schoenolxenus. 

 The Sedge Warbler is a regular and abundant summer 

 visitor, breeding commonly on the banks of all our streams 

 where any cover is to be found, and frequently along hedge- 

 rows in the meadows and low grounds, a preference being 

 generally, but not always, shown to those furnished with a wet 

 ditch. A veritable mocking-bird, its hurried chattering song", 

 made up of a mixture of its own rather harsh notes with 

 those of numerous other birds, is one of the commonest sounds 

 in our valleys in early summer, the footsteps of the passer-by 

 rarely faihng to awaken it even at midnight. The Sedge 

 Warbler arrives about the middle or end of April, and leaves 

 again in September; but in 1886 one was seen by Mr. A. H. 

 Macpherson near the river above Oxford in cold weather as 

 late as the 26th October. 



THE GRASSHOPPER WARBLER. -^ ' 



Acrocephalus ncevins. 

 The Grasshopper Warbler is a regular, but far from 

 abundant, summer visitor of very local distribu.tion, breeding 

 regularly in certain localities. The Messrs. Matthews found 

 it by no means rare about Weston-on-the-Green, and give a 

 figure of the male, female, and nest in their Account of the 

 Birds of Oxfordshire, the male being represented in an atti- 

 tude which they had often seen it assume when running up a 

 twig in the act of singing. [Zoologist, 1849, p. 2425.) The 

 male, as the Rev. A. Matthews informs me, was drawn from 

 life, and the nest on the ground was figured in the situation 

 in which he foimd it. In the neighbourhood of Oxford the 

 Grasshopper Warbler is rare, but the Rev. Murray A. ISIathew 



