92 Summer Studies of Birds and Books CHAP. 



necessary to cut away the saplings above and below 

 the nest, and so to preserve it in its original position 

 for exhibition. This was successfully accomplished, 

 and we were delighted to find that a second egg had 

 been laid in the night. In the afternoon I started 

 on my journey to Switzerland, and on the Thursday 

 morning my companion and I (he it was who had 

 been my first witness the year before) found at 

 Stanzstadt another beautiful nest containing five 

 eggs, slung not in saplings or meadowsweet, but in a 

 thick bunch of a nettle-like plant, whose name I do 

 not know. The same day we heard and saw many 

 other Marsh Warblers, and later experience makes 

 me certain that they may be looked for anywhere in 

 Switzerland where there is plenty of mossy or reedy 

 ground, on the margin of lakes or rivers. 



I must needs say a word in the last place of the 

 personal appearance of this intimate friend of mine ; 

 but this, I must confess, is the most difficult and the 

 least interesting point about him. Of the three 

 species of the genus Acrocephalus which breed every 

 year in these islands, one, the Sedge Warbler (A. 

 pTiragmitis) is easily distinguishable by the yellowish 

 stripe over each eye, as well as by his habits, eggs, 

 and vociferous outpourings of song. But the other 

 two, the Eeed and Marsh Warblers (A. streperus and 

 A. palustris) have grown into distinct species not 

 so much through variations in the colour of their 



