iv The Marsh Warbler 87 



Warbler here, so that all three species of Acrocephali 

 were quartered in this space of two acres and a half, 

 for the Sedge Warbler, I need hardly say, was both 

 abundant and noisy here. 



My third witness was my friend Mr. A. Holte 

 Macpherson, whose name is familiar to readers of 

 the Zoologist. He was less lucky than the others, for 

 he only saw and heard the bird for a moment. He 

 deserved better of it, for he got up before dawn, and 

 spent the hours from three to eight in a fruitless 

 search for the nest in a smaller osier-bed to which 

 my bird seemed by this time to have moved. We 

 were not to find a nest that year ; and it may have 

 been, as Mr. Macpherson conjectured, that, as this 

 was apparently the first visit of the species to our 

 neighbourhood, one or more males had arrived alone, 

 and, failing to find mates in spite of continual sing- 

 ing, had given up the case as hopeless and gone else- 

 where. However that might be, we had nothing for 

 it but to hope that next year they would try their 

 luck again, and give us the chance of completing 

 ours. 



When the May of the present year (1893) came 

 round with its early foliage and unceasing warmth, 

 I began to listen at the osier-bed ; but the withies 

 had been cut in the winter, and the appearance of 

 the place was so much changed that I was inclined 

 to doubt whether the birds would take to it again. 



