BIRDS BROWN ABOVE AND WHITE BELOW. 63 



of notes, continued as tlie bird dives suddenly into 

 cover again. 



REED-WARBLER — 5 inches ; similar in form, colour, habits, 



and song, but with fainter eye-stripe and iipper plumage 



flain brown, that is, not mottled. 

 COMMON WHITETHROAT— 5i inches; head and neck 



ashy ; no eye-streak ; outer tail-feathers largely white. 



Uses harsh ^ Chur-r-r !' and sustained prattling song, 



but does not so habitually frequent the water-side. 

 REED-BUNTING — 6 inches ; also nests in reed-beds, but 



the male has glossy-black head and broad Avhite collar ; 



outer tail-feathers conspicuously white ; feathers of upper 



parts reddish -brown, with dark centres. Note, '■Trit!^ 



monotonously repeated. 

 GRASSHOPPER-WARBLER — 5i inches; olive-brown 



above, faintly clouded with dark centres to feathers ; 



very faint whitish eye-stripe ; tail much rounded at end. 



Note, a sustained reeling. 



GRASSHOPPER-WARBLER.— Plate 29. Length, 

 h\ inches. Upper parts olive-brown, the feathers 

 softly clouded with dark central streaks ; faint whitish 

 eye-stripe ; wings and tail dusky, the feathers mar- 

 gined with olive-brown ; under parts white with a 

 brownish cast, deeper on neck and breast ; feathers 

 of the tail graduated, becoming shorter from the 

 central ones outward. Summer migrant. 



Eggs. — 5-7, pinkish-white, finely speckled all over 

 with reddish-brown ; "7 x '54 inch (plate 12-4). 



Nest. — Of dry grass and moss, lined with finer 

 grass, and placed near the ground in thick bushes 

 or hedge-bottoms, or in coarse herbage. 



Distribution. — England and Wales, notably in 

 Northumberland and Durham ; rarer in Scotland ; 

 almost throuo-hout Ireland. 



