REED WARBLER. 87 



which is composed almost exclusively of the last-named. 

 This upper part can sometimes be detached from the 

 lower, as if from a socket, the whole being narrow and 

 deep to secure the eggs when the reeds are so swayed 

 down, that the frail fabric, the bird all the while sitting 

 in it, is often brought close to the very water's edge. 

 The depth outside is from about three to five inches, 

 and the inside about three, by about three in width at 

 the top and two at the bottom. The nest, however, is 

 not invariably placed among reeds; it is at times found 

 in a blackthorn, whitethorn, willow, or among the 

 clustering branches of an osier bed. Mr. Sweet met 

 with one in the low part of a poplar tree, and Mr. 

 Bolton another in a hazel bush. It is said that the 

 nests of birds of the first and second year's age are 

 not so neatly finished as those whose builders have had 

 more experience. When destroyed sometimes by floods, 

 even two or three times, these birds have been known 

 by Mr. Briggs to build a fourth. James Dalton, Esq., 

 of Worcester College Oxford, has taken one suspended 

 in a box tree, near the piece of water which is there 

 so great an ornament. N. Rowe, Esq., of the same 

 College, has found it in a lilac tree. G. B. Clarke, 

 Esq., of Woburn, has also forwarded to me specimens 

 of the nest and eggs of the present species, as have 

 likewise J. G. Bonney, Esq., and Mr. Dalton. 



The eggs, usually four, but sometimes five or six 

 in number, are of a dull greenish white colour, spotted 

 and freckled with darker greyish green and light brown. 

 In some instances the spots are almost black, in others 

 inclining to a brownish green; occasionally the egg is 

 marked with one or two little black lines at the broad 

 end. The arrangement of the spots is endless some 

 varieties are equally marked all over; in some the spots 



