298 THE SEDGE WARBLER. 



them. The general colour of this bird is dull olive-brown, with 

 oblong spots ; the lower parts pale yellowish-brown ; fore part 

 of neck has dusky lines ; the tail is long ; iris, brown ; bill, 

 brown above, yellowish below; legs and feet yellowish-brown. 

 The female similar — length, 5| inches ; extent of wings, 

 7 \ inches. There is another larger species, called Savi's 

 Warbler — Salicaria Luscinoides ; but, as I never saw it here, I 

 need not mention it further than that it is very rare in Britain, 

 chiefly found in the fens of Cambridgeshire ; and in habits the 

 same as the last. The eggs like the pied wagtail's. The next is 



The Sedge Warbler. 



(Salicaria Phragmitis.) Mihi. 



" The duck dabbles 'mid the sedge ; 

 Or the swan stirs the reeds, his neck and bill 

 Wetting, that drip upon the waters still." — Wordsivorth. 



In size and colour this bird resembles the Locustella, but is 

 easily known by the white streak above the eyes. It has the 

 same stealthy habits — only amongst sedges and reeds, instead 

 of brambles and furze. The head is also narrow and flat, but 

 not so much as the other. It is also a summer migrant, coming 

 about the end of April. Its haunts are marshes, banks of rivers, 

 and lochs — or wherever there are sedges, reeds, or aquatic plants 

 to give it shelter — where it may be heard all day, sometimes 

 at night during the breeding season, singing its varied, sweet, 

 confused little song, which seems a general blending and medley 

 of nearly all our little birds' songs — from the low twitter of the 

 swallow to the rich notes of the lark, with the sweet notes of the 

 linnet and robin, and the yelping of the sparrow, all inter- 

 mingled with singular confusion and rapidity, as if its object was 

 to mingle as many different styles in the shortest space of time — 

 to make it " like a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, 

 signifying nothing " — for which it is called " Blethering Tarn." 

 It lays in May and June ; eggs usually five, pale brown, all 

 speckled over with small spots. They are less than the grass- 

 hopper warbler's, and so like the yellow wagtail's as hardly to be 



