AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 121 



the Reed- Warbler, Nightingale, Blackcap, and Green- 

 finch in the song of this bird ; in fact it is often 

 difficult to say what part of the rapid performance 

 really constitutes the natural song of the species. 

 Although usually found amongst sedges and thick 

 bushes on the banks of streams and ponds, the Sedge- 

 Warbler does not confine itself to such localities, as I 

 have met with its nest in young plantations of fir 

 and larch far removed from water, and also in one 

 instance in a kitchen-garden, near a pump certainly, 

 but without any other water within a considerable 

 distance. The nests of this species vary considerably ; 

 I have found some carefully built of moss and coarse 

 grass externally, with a thick lining of stalks of 

 various plants and horsehair, and others simply made 

 of sedges loosely put together with a slight lining of 

 hairs. The eggs are seldom more than five, some- 

 times six, of a yellowish white, very closely blotched 

 and spotted with a greenish brown, and have generally 

 a few thin wavy streaks of black at the larger end. 

 I have several times found the nest actually on the 

 ground, but it is more commonly slightly raised from 

 it in a thick bush or patch of coarse sedge ; a strong 

 low bramble growing near water is with us a very 

 favourite situation. The Cuckoo sometimes selects 

 these nests for her eggs, but not so often as those 

 of the Reed-Warbler. Another species of Warbler 

 much resembling the present, viz. the Aquatic W T arbler 

 (Acrocephalus aquaticus), has occurred more than once 

 in England, on one occasion as near to us as Lough- 

 borough, in Leicestershire, and should be looked for 

 in the localities frequented by the Reed- and Sedge- 

 Warblers. 



