464 BRITISH BIRDS' NESTS. 



WARBLER, MARSH. 



(Acrocephahis palustris.) 

 Order PASSERES ; Family SYLVIID^: (WARBLERS). 



Description of Parent 

 Birds. This bird very closely 

 resembles the Reed Warbler, 

 and it is only within recent 

 years that it has been ad- 

 mitted to be a distinct Brit- 

 ish breeding species. Mr. 

 Harting has done much to 

 establish this fact, and speci- 

 MARSH WARBLER ON mens have been seen and 



procured in different parts of 



the country. Length about five and a half inches. 

 Bill shorter and broader than in the case of the 

 Reed Warbler, nearly straight, dark brown above, 

 and pale brown below. Irides hazel. Mr. Seebohm, 

 who has had special facilities for examining speci- 

 mens, describes the bird as follows, in his admirable 

 work on British Birds : 



" The Marsh Warbler has the general colour of 

 the upper-parts varying from olive-brown in spring 

 plumage to earthy-brown in summer, with a scarcely 

 perceptible shade of rufous after the autumn moult, 

 slightly paler on the rump. The eye stripe is nearly 

 obsolete, and the innermost secondaries have broad, 

 ill-defined pale edges. The breast, flanks, and 

 under tail-coverts are pale buff, shading into nearly 

 white on the chin, throat, and the centre of the 

 belly. . . . Legs, feet, and claws horn colour." 



Dresser and Sharpe say that this Warbler has 

 the legs of a pale flesh-brown, and that those of 

 the Reed Warbler are dark slaty-brO^n. 



