66 THE BIRDS OF SUSSEX. 



SEDGE-WARBLER. 



AcrocephaUis schcenohcenus. 



Arriving in April^ and spreading immediately over the 

 county, it betakes itself to some sedgy willow-plot^ or to tlie 

 borders of some ditch or brook overgrown by aquatic herb- 

 age, or even to the banks of ponds and pits. Here, among 

 stunted hawthorn or other bushes, browsed down by cattle 

 or nibbled by rabbits, it frequently builds its nest. I have 

 more than once found it in a bean-field by the water, where 

 the crop was bound down by the white convolvulus, aptly 

 called in Sussex, and probably in other counties, the " bind- 

 weed.^^ A field of beans, if near any pond or brook, has 

 certainly a peculiar attraction for this bird, and it is fond of 

 sitting and singing among them, probably because it is there 

 well concealed and can find a plentiful supply of aphides and 

 such liice congenial food. 



It is not so much attached to reed -beds as the preceding 

 species, and not being so much exposed to the winds, its 

 nest is more open and not so deep. It keeps up a constant 

 chattering by day and during the greater part of the night, 

 and, should it be a short time silent, its song will be at once 

 resumed should a stone be thrown into its place of con- 

 cealment. 



It not unfrequently sings on the wing while mounting up 

 to a considerable height on to a w-illow or other tree near 

 the waterside, rising to its perch with a quivering flight, and 

 descending again to the thick herbage, very much in the 

 manner of the Tree-Pipit, when, after rising in the air, it 

 returns to the highest point of a tree or bu^h. Like most 

 of its congeners it leaves the country in September, in the 

 early part or which month I have often flushed a considerable 



