THE REED WARBLER 57 



research will increase the area of its distribution. In external 1 

 appearance it only differs from the Eeed Warbler in the 

 colour of the rump, which is olive-brown ; in the latter and 

 commoner species this is russet-brown. It is a much better 

 songster than the Keed Warbler, its voice being more varied, 

 richer, and almost as sweet as the strain of the Nightingale. 

 It is also much less skulking in its habits, and instead of 

 reed beds loves to frequent the dense vegetation by the 

 water-side brambles, brushwood, alders, and willows, where 

 the ground below them is clothed with luxuriant herbage. 

 The Marsh Warbler arrives in England late in spring, and 

 leaves us early in autumn May and August being its " travel- 

 ling months." Its nest is attached to stems of tall plants, 

 such as nettles and meadow -sweet, never to the reeds or 

 over water. It is made of dry grass, scraps of moss and 

 vegetable fibre, and lined with horsehair. The eggs, five or 

 six in number, are greenish-blue or greenish-white in ground 

 colour, spotted and blotched with olive -brown and violet- 

 gray, and occasionally with dark brown. The food of the 

 Marsh Warbler is almost exclusively composed of insects. 



