THE REED-WARBLER. 27 



he is a fearless little fellow, and is not a bit afraid. Just 

 cast a stone or a clod of earth to where you last saw him, 

 and he will at once resent such impertinence by bursting 

 out again in full song, though in somewhat a lower key. 

 This amusing bird is the SEDGE-WARBLER (Acrocephalus 

 schcenobcenus), two crackjaw words, which mean, in plain 

 English, " the pointed-headed bird of the sedges and bul- 

 rushes." Of the family Sylviidce ; it is commonly known on 

 the banks of the Thames as the Chat. In Ireland it is 

 called the Irish nightingale, as it often sings through the 

 night. It is a summer resident, coming in April and 

 departing in October. On its arrival it at once takes up 

 its abode among the reeds and flags, and builds its nest 

 with grass and bents, placed low down ; lays four or five 

 spotted eggs of a yellowish red-brown colour. Seebohm 

 (" British Birds and their Eggs ") says " that its haunts are 

 as much in the tangled brake and dense vegetation of 

 marshy plantations as amongst the ever-murmuring reeds." 

 The bird itself is from 4 inches to 5 inches in length, of 

 a rufous brown, streaked with darker brown. A broad 

 streak of yellowish white extends from the beak back 

 over the eyes and ear-coverts. The breast and lower part 

 is of a pale buff, and notice the broad white streak over 

 the eye. One can easily see these marks by using the 

 binocular, and in this manner can distinguish this bird 

 from another which frequents the reeds, but which is much 

 more shy, namely 



THE REED-WARBLER. 



The REED- WARBLER (Acrocephalus streperus) ; that is, the 

 Long-Headed, Noisy, or Bustling Bird. 



Seebohm calls it amndmaceous, or frequenter of reeds, 

 which is much more characteristic. It is of the same order 

 and family as the sedge-warbler, but is larger and more 

 slender, and, from its peculiarly shy habits, not so often 

 seen or heard, although it is probably quite as common. If 

 you are quiet, and in the vicinity of the tall reeds (Arundo 

 phragmites), one occasionally is seen flying over the droop- 



