BRITISH BIRDS' NESTS. 471 



WARBLER, SEDGE. 



(Acrocephalus phragmitis. ) 

 Order PASSERES ; Family SYLVIID.E (WARBLERS). 



Description of Parent Birds. 

 Length four and three- 

 quarter inches. Bill fairly 

 long, straight, pointed, and 

 brown, yellowish at the base 

 of the under mandible. Irides 

 brown. Crown of the head 

 streaked with light and dark 

 brown longitudinal lines ; 



SEDGE WARBLER. , ' > 



back of neck, back, and 



wing-coverts light reddish-brown, mixed with a 

 darker tint of the same colour, wing-quills dark 

 brown, bordered with lighter tinge ; rump and upper 

 tail-coverts tawny ; tail-quills brown, indistinctly 

 barred ; from the base of the beak a yellowish- 

 white streak runs over the eye and ear-coverts, 

 the latter of which are brown. Chin and throat 

 white ; breast, belly, and under tail-coverts pale 

 buff ; under-side of tail-quills dusky brown ; flanks 

 bright buff. Legs, toes, and claws pale brown. 



The female is darker on the under-parts, and less 

 rufous on the under tail-coverts. 



Situation and Locality. Amongst thick, coarse, 

 climbing herbage, brambles, wild rose, and other 

 bushes, near streams, rivers, and swamps, pretty 

 generally throughout the British Isles. 



Materials. Grass, coarse bents, and bits of moss, 

 sometimes none of the latter whatever, lined inter- 

 nally with horsehairs, and occasionally with willow 

 down. It is a deep, cup-shaped, loosely-built structure. 



Eggs. Five or six, pale yellowish or umber 



