THE SEDGE WARBLER 
ACROCEPHALUS PHRAGMITIS 
Loca names in surrounding counties: “‘ Night Warbler” 
(Kissex). 
Stratus IN British AvirauNA: A common summer 
visitor, widely distributed, and found in all suitable 
localities. - 
RapiAL DisTrRiBUTION WITHIN FIFTEEN MILES OF ST. 
Paut’s: ‘The Sedge Warbler is certainly more generally 
dispersed and commoner than the Reed Warbler in the 
Metropolitan area. ‘To begin with, it is far less fastidious 
in the selection of a haunt, and often makes its summer 
retreat on the banks of small ponds and ditches which 
the rarer species would shun. I have records of its breed- 
ing at Dulwich, Wimbledon, Kew, and Richmond; it 
is found in many localities within our radius in North 
Surrey and Kent; whilst in Middlesex it may be met 
with in most suitable spots about the Brent, the canal 
banks at Twyford, Park Royal, Wembley, Harrow, 
Kingsbury, the northern suburbs, and east to Epping, 
Wanstead, Ilford, and Dagenham. ‘The Sedge Warbler 
is much attached to its haunts, and will continue to visit 
them after much of their once great privacy has been 
disturbed by the growing exodus of London’s population. 
On several occasions | have remarked how the noisy 
rowing of some Cockney band on river or canal has called 
this Warbler into scolding songs of resentment. It is a 
skulking bird, and very often overlooked in localities where 
its presence might never be suspected. 
Such Sedge Warblers as spend the summer within 
the area of Greater London reach their usual haunts 
towards the end of April, and, like the preceding species, 
leave them again in September. Although not quite so 
exclusively aquatic, this bird somewhat closely resembles 
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