HABITS IN CONFINEMENT. 61 



The Marsh Reedling, as this bird is sometimes called, 

 appears to have been first described as a British species by 

 the Rev. M. Lightfoot, who in 1785 discovered a specimen 

 on the banks of the river Colne near Uxbridge. Mr. 

 Bolton, however, says that the bird was known to him 

 long before that time, although he had no name for it, as 

 haunting in Yorkshire the rushy places near rivulets, and 

 greatly resembling the Whitethroat in its actions. ' These 

 birds,' he continues, ' have also been sent to me from Lan- 

 cashire, shot on the river Roch. The cock has a sweet 

 song ; his notes partake of those of the Whitethroat and 

 those of the Blackcap, and are often repeated with a shak- 

 ing of the wings and tail while he is perched on some low 

 bush, not far from the ground.' Montagu has found this 

 species along the coast of Kent and Sussex, from Sandwich 

 to Arundel. 



Broderip describes the song of this bird as varied and 

 pleasing, though hurried, like that of the Sedge Warbler. 

 ' Frequently,' he says, * have we heard it when plying the 

 rod on the banks of the Colne. It sings by night as well 

 as by day continually, and its loud music, often heard 

 clearest in the evening twilight or grey dawn, resembles 

 the notes and voices of several different birds.' 



Sweet, who calls this bird the Willow Wren, describes 

 it as 



An elegant little species, which visits us about the middle of 

 April, and leaves us again the latter end of September or beginning 

 of October. In its wild state it feeds entirely on small insects, and 

 chiefly on the different species of aphis, but it will not refuse small 

 flies or caterpillars ; it is easily taken in a trap baited with small 

 caterpillars, or a rose branch covered with aphides, and it will soon 

 become very tame in confinement. One that I caught in September 

 was in three days afterwards let out of its aviary into the room to 

 catch flies, which were numerous at this season. After amusing 

 itself for some time in catching flies it began singing ; it did the 

 same several other times when it was let out, and in a few days it 

 began to sing in the aviary. It soon became so familiar that it 

 would take flies out of the hand, and when it was out in the room, 

 if a fly was held towards it, it would fly up and take it from the. 

 hand. It was also taught to drink milk out of a spoon, by putting 

 some flies into it ; as soon as it had tasted the milk it was very fond 

 of it, as most of the birds of this genus are. If the spoon was held 



