332 A PRACTICAL HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



caspia, Turkestan) has more olive upper-parts and rather shorter 

 wing. For differences of L. lanceolata see under that species. 



Field-characters. — Chiefly a dweller in fens and bogs, but also 

 frequents gorse-covered commons, heather, and young j)lantations . 

 Essentially a skulking creature, creej)ing like a mouse in tangled 

 herbage, but readily recognized if seen by its greenish -brown 

 jilumage, streaked dorsally, obscure ej'e-stripe and rounded taiJ. 

 Would often evade notice but for song of male, usually uttered 

 from toj) of a bush or twig, a rapid trill, rising and falling, pitched 

 so high as to be inaudible to some ears, and often maintained with- 

 out a break for two minutes or more. It has some resemblance 

 to a line running quickly off an angler's reel, and is unlike that of 

 any other British breeding bird. Alarm -note a sharp " tchick " 

 repeated several times. 



Breeding -habits. — Nests on edges of thickets on commons or in 

 clumps of rank grass and rushes in marshes, also in osier beds and 

 plantations of saplings. Nest. — Usually carefully hidden in 

 tussock, sometimes on ground or raised a foot or so above it : 

 built of dead grasses and stalks, the bird -entering and leaving by 

 a run. Eggs. — Normally 6, very rarely 7, sometimes 5, thickl}' 

 spotted with broA\iiish-red on a creamy groinid, often forming a 

 zone and generally Avith a dark hair-streak. Exceptionally eggs 

 with large purple-red blotches have been taken. Average of 100 

 eggs, 17.6 X 13.6 mm. Breeding-season. — About last week of 

 May as a rule or early June : as eggs have been found late in July 

 or even August a second brood may sometimes be reared. 



Food. — Insects and their larvae, including many found on marsh 

 vegetation ; coleoptera, lepidoptera, diptera, neuroptera, etc. 

 Saunders says dragon-flies are taken on the wing and Miss Turner 

 reports yovnig fed on small caterpillars, flies and woodlice. 



Distribution. — England, Wales, and Ireland. — Summer-resident, 

 local, but fairly evenly distributed in suitable localities, rare 

 Cornwall and very local Wales. Scotland. — Local and thinly 

 distributed in south-west and Clyde area, but breeding at wide 

 intervals as far north as Arisaig (south-west Inverness) and Skye. 

 On east side breeds locally as far as Perth, and has been recorcleel 

 as nesting at Pitlochry (Perth.), anel even as far north as Elgin, 

 north of which on mainland not noteel even as vagrant, but has 

 occurred four times in spring Fair Isle. Has once occurreel as 

 far west as Skerryvore (off Tiree), biit not in 0. Hebrieles. 



Migrations. — Great Britain. — Early arrivals in spring of summer- 

 residents third week April (earlj- date 9) main body begins to arrive 

 towards end of fourth week, and continues to third week Ma}'. 

 Some evidence of passage-movements by both east and west 

 coast routes mid-April to mid-Ma}'. Departure of summer-residents 



