ACROCEPHALUS PALUSTRIS. ~ 291 
\The following account of the species in the Transvaal is given by- 
Mr. Thomas (Ayres : :—“ The nest of this species is a very extraordi- 
nary structure for so small a bird; it isa mass of seven or eight 
inches in depth, and four or five in diameter, with a small neat cup- 
shaped cavity at the top, an inch and a quarter across; it is com- 
posed principally of white feathers intermixed and bound together 
with pieces of cotton, wool, and grass; the tips of many of the 
feathers are allowed to stick out fancifully, which gives the nest an 
odd appearance as if expressly ornamented; the inside of the cup 
is very neatly lined with fine grassand horsehair. All nests are not 
as large as the one described; but all partake more or less of the 
same character. They are built generally amongst the fig-tree 
hedges common in the town of Potchefstroom. When insects are 
scarce the birds feed readily on the ripe figs, here very abundant in 
the autumn months. The eggs are generally two or three in num- 
ber. It seems to me that the birds add to their old nest each BpasOm, 
which will account for the structure being so extremely large.” / >) Mr. 
Andersson says that he has obtained this bird on a few occasions in 
Damara Land. 
Adult.—General colour, above fulyous brown, more dusky on the 
head and inclining to clearer fulvous on the rump and upper tail- 
coverts : quills dark brown, all the feathers edged with the same 
fulvous-brown as the back: tail brown with lighter-brown edges ; 
lores rufous buff, as also a few feathers over the eye, not, however, 
forming an eyebrow: round the eye a ring of buffy white feathers : 
ear-coverts fulyous-brown with slightly indicated lighter shaft- 
streaks : cheeks and under surface of body buffy white, the throat 
and centre of the abdomen purer white: sides of the body clear 
fulvous brown, deeper and more rufous on the sides of the breast 
and flanks: thighs dull fulvous brown: under tail-coverts buffy 
whitish : under wing-coverts light tawny buff. Total length, 5:2 
inches; culmen, 0°55; wigg, 2°35; tail, 2°15; tarsus, 0°95. 
Fig. le Vaill. Ois. d’Afr. pl. 121, fig. 2. 
275. ACROCEPHALUS PALUSTRIS. Marsh- Warbler. 
Captain Shelley discovered this specimen in Natal during his 
expedition to Southern Africa. He writes (Ibis, 1875, p. 72) :—“I 
shot the only specimen I saw in the thick bush some 500 yards from 
the Benshy ground near Durban, on the 30th of March. I com- 
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