iv The Marsh Warbler 95 



more rufous back and slate-coloured legs ; but these 

 differences soon cease to be at all obvious when the 

 birds have been dead some time, and it is this which 

 has caused so much difficulty in identifying the skins 

 of the two species, and in using them for illustration 

 in pictures. 



In telling the whole history of my acquaintance 

 with the bird, I have been aiming at giving those 

 who have not yet met with it a better chance of dis- 

 covering it than they would gain from even the best 

 handbooks. I have told them my own failures and 

 difficulties, in order that they may avoid such experi- 

 ences themselves, and may not waste time in looking 

 for the bird in places where they are not likely to 

 find him. And I can confidently assure them that a 

 search for a Marsh Warbler in a labyrinthine osier- 

 bed may have wonderful charms for an enthusiast, 

 and that flies and gnats, heat and damp, wet ditches 

 and stinging nettles, will lose all their power to 

 annoy when once you have caught the sweet and 

 silvery voice of the bird you have come to make 

 friends with. 1 



1 These last words excited the scorn of a reviewer in the 

 Manchester Guardian, into whose hands this paper fell when issued 

 as a separate pamphlet. But I let them stand ; for the birds, 

 by returning to the identical spot this June (1894), have shown 

 that they bore me no permanent ill-will for taking their first nest 

 last year, the only nest, so far as I can remember, that I have ever 

 taken in my life. I need hardly add that I left them unmolested 

 this time. 



